Week
of Prayer for Christian Unity • Day 2 • January 19, 2012
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Simeon and Hannah in the
Temple, by Rembrandt (1627)
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Changed
through patient waiting for the Lord
Readings
• 1
Samuel 1:1-20 Hannah’s trust and patient waiting
• Psalms
40 Patient waiting for the Lord
• Hebrews
11:32-34 Through faith they conquered kingdoms, administered justice
• Matthew
3:13-17 Let it be so now, for it is proper to fulfill all righteousness
Commentary
Victory is often associated with immediate triumph. Everybody knows
the taste of success when, after a difficult struggle, congratulations,
recognition, and even tributes are paid. At such a joyful moment, hardly
anyone realizes that from a Christian perspective victory is a long-term
process of transformation. Such an understanding of transformative victory
teaches us that it occurs in God’s time, not ours, calling for our patient
trust and deep hope in God.
Hannah witnessed to such patient trust and hope. After many years of
waiting to be pregnant, she prayed to God for a child, at the risk of having
her weeping prayer dismissed as drunkenness by the priest at the doorpost
of the Temple. When Eli assured her that God would grant her prayer, she
simply trusted, waited, and was sad no longer. Hannah conceived and bore
a son, whom she named Samuel. The great victory here is not that of nations
or armies, but a glimpse into the realm of a private and personal struggle.
In the end, Hannah’s trust and hope results not only in her own transformation,
but that of her people, for whom the God of Israel intervened through her
son Samuel.
The psalmist echoes Hannah’s patient waiting for the Lord in the midst
of another kind of struggle. The psalmist too sought deliverance from a
situation which remains unknown to us, but which is hinted at in the language
of the “desolate pit of the miry bog.” He gives thanks that God has transformed
his shame and confusion, and continues to trust in God’s steadfast love.
The author of the Letter to the Hebrews recalls the patience of people
like Abraham (6.15) and others who were able to be victorious through their
faith and trust in God. The realization that God intervenes and enters
into the narrative of human history eliminates the temptation to be triumphant
in human terms.
In the gospel, the voice from heaven at the baptism of Jesus announcing
this
is my Son, the Beloved, seems to be a guarantor of the immediate success
of His messianic mission. In resisting the evil one, however, Jesus, does
not succumb to the temptation to usher in the Kingdom of God without delay,
but patiently reveals what life in the kingdom means through His own life
and ministry which leads to His death on the Cross. While the Kingdom of
God breaks through in a decisive way in the resurrection, it is not yet
fully realized. The ultimate victory will only come about with the second
coming of our Lord. And so we wait in patient hope and trust with the cry
“Come, Lord Jesus.”
Our longing for the visible unity of the Church likewise requires patient
and trustful waiting. Our prayer for Christian unity is like the prayer
of Hannah and the psalmist. Our work for Christian unity is like the deeds
recorded in the Letter to the Hebrews. Our attitude of patient waiting
is not one of helplessness or passivity, but a deep trust that the unity
of the Church is God’s gift, not our achievement. Such patient waiting,
praying and trust transforms us and prepares us for the visible unity of
the Church not as we plan it, but as God gives it.
Prayer
Faithful God, You are true to Your word in every age. May we, like
Jesus, have patience and trust in Your steadfast love. Enlighten us by
Your Holy Spirit that we may not obstruct the fullness of Your justice
by our own hasty judgments, but rather discern Your wisdom and love in
all things; You who live and reign forever and ever. Amen.
Family Reflection
on 1 Samuel 1-20
We are always supposed to pray, but sometimes as with Hannah, God does
not give us what we want straight away. Hannah longed for a child
but it was not until after she had cried out to the Lord many times that
she saw God’s answer to prayer, a baby boy called Samuel. God does not
always give us what we pray for immediately and we need to be patient.
Sometimes we do not see the answer to our prayers and we have to have confidence
that God has heard us and is listening to us even though we have not seen
an answer. We need to be patient as Hannah was patient.
Are there things you have prayed for where you have not yet seen God’s
answer? Are you confident He is hearing you even if you can-not see the
answer? God is always faithful and hears our prayers, but sometimes we
do not recognize the answers since they are different from the ones we
thought would come; so we must not give up praying. |
