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Eli and Samuel, faith, mentoring, Young Adult Ministry, younger generation and faith, Youth Ministry
On January 31st, the Church will celebrate the Feast of St. John Bosco – a man who devoted his life to helping young people. One of the greatest blessings of our Christian faith is the witness of men and women throughout history who let go of their own needs and worked tirelessly for the good of youth and those generations who were to come after them. The witness of these men and women should call us, as the Church, into a reflection on how best to minister to youth and young adults, especially in a time and culture that is “youth obsessed”. We can readily see how this obsession plays itself out in all areas of society – the entertainment and news media industry, politics, sports, education, relationships – just to name a few. A fair question is how might this “obsession with youth” bleed into and perhaps even negatively influence the Church’s own ministry to youth and young adults just as they are seeking to claim their own Christian faith and discipleship and how might we best avoid the danger of this obsession?
For full disclosure, I will begin by stating that one of the core convictions I gained in my ministry with youth and young adults is that young people do not benefit from older people trying to act or pretend young; rather young people benefit when their elders remember their own age and are authentic to who they, themselves, are.
To use an image from Scripture: in our world today, young Samuels need the guidance of older and wiser Elis. For any person ministering to young people, 1 Samuel 2-3 is an important and essential point of reference. There is much insight to be gained in continually returning to these chapters. Eli is one of the unsung heroes of Scripture. For our purposes here, we will make use of the famous encounter between the young Samuel and the elder Eli as a way to explore some thoughts.
In the second chapter of 1 Samuel we are told that the Lord had withdrawn his favor from the house of the priest Eli due to the corrupt actions of his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. Yet the young Samuel “continued to grow both in stature and favor with the Lord and with men.” (1 Samuel 2:26) In the third chapter we find the well-known scene of the young Samuel hearing the voice of the Lord, mistaking it for the voice of the old priest and going each time to the sleeping Eli until finally Eli catches on to what is happening and instructs the young man in how to respond.
Our focus here is more on Eli than Samuel. There are four things that Eli does and personifies which are worthy of reflection and emulation.
- Eli has a relationship with the young Samuel while not pretending to be Samuel’s peer.
- Eli was a man of prayer who was able to eventually recognize what was occurring and then give good instruction to the young man.
- Eli put what was in Samuel’s best interest before his own.
- Eli trusted in God.
The fact that the young Samuel is comfortable in seeking out the elder Eli each time he hears the voice of the Lord testifies to an established relationship of trust between the two persons yet nowhere is there expressed any confusion between their differing roles. Eli knows who he is and therefore he is comfortable in his own skin and he has no need to pretend to be something that he is not. An approach to Christian faith and ministry that needs to abandon itself and our Christian heritage in order to chase after the world in the hopes of relevancy lacks maturity and therefore any real depth of insight to offer a young person who is searching. It might be flashy in the moment but beyond that there is just really not that much there.
What enabled Eli to be comfortable in his own skin and act out of his own authenticity was that he was a man of prayer. Like any true discipline, the fruit of prayer is only born after the establishment of a hard-fought for habit and practice. Let’s be honest, the discipline of prayer is not easy. That which enabled Eli to finally recognize what was occurring with the young Samuel was a lifetime spent devoted to the often daily and mundane work of prayer. An approach to Christian faith and prayer which seeks to manufacture “spiritual highs” at all times rather than developing the daily discipline of prayer is more about feeding addiction than honest Christian spirituality. Such an approach is in fact a disservice. The life of Christian faith grows gradually, often unnoticed and through daily habit.
Not only did Eli know what the Lord’s call meant for the young Samuel; he also knew what it meant for him and his family. Frankly, God’s calling of Samuel meant the end of the road for Eli and his own sons. It would not be out of place to believe that this recognition must have crossed Eli’s mind along with the temptation to intentionally misguide the youth in an attempt to watch out for his own sons. Yet, Eli did no such thing. Eli put Samuel’s best interest before his own and even that of his sons. This will forever be in Eli’s favor. To let go of self for the good of another person takes a mature and wise heart. Wisdom is sorely lacking in our world today and one way that this can sadly be seen is when members of an older generation cannot let go of their own interests, needs and particular viewpoints in deference to what is in the best interest of the younger generation. When we let go of our own needs to help those who come after us then we make a choice for hope and a choice for the future.
I believe that one of the many contributing factors behind younger generations no longer defining themselves as religious is their own experience of their elders’ inability to put the needs of others before their own – the “elders” in this context being a generation of people who would more readily define themselves as “religious”. When young people no longer define themselves as religious are they forsaking religion per se or are they reacting against impoverished examples of religion which they have seen? True maturity is found in not always needing to put oneself first. True maturity is expressed in seeking the good of the other person. It is this type of maturity that truly aids the next generation, as shown in this encounter between the elder Eli and the young Samuel.
What enables this letting go is a profound trust in God. Eli had such a trust. Following upon God’s revelation to Samuel; Eli requests that the young Samuel inform him of all that had been spoken by the Lord, holding nothing back. Samuel shares all, including the ending of Eli’s house. Eli responds, “It is the Lord, let him do what seems good to him.” (1 Samuel 3:18) Eli’s trust in the Lord was perhaps one of his greatest gifts to the young Samuel. A faith obsessed with pursuing youth and relevancy lacks this depth of trust because it is a depth that can only be achieved by negation and passing through the dark night of the senses. At this point, everything Eli had been about was negated yet he is able to offer this profound statement of trust in the Lord. In the end, the most important thing is that God’s will be done.
It does the Church no good to chase after the world. Yes, we live in the world and there are truly positive things to be gained and we must seek to encounter and dialogue with the times we find ourselves in but it does no good if we are co-opted and lose our own soul in the process. Eli has much to teach us about helping younger generations find and know God while, at the same time, remaining authentic to who we ourselves are.
There is much worthy of reflecting upon in today’s gospel (Jn. 2:1-11) which gives the account of our Lord’s first public miracle – the turning of water into wine and the wedding in Cana. We can see in the image of the couple running out of wine on their wedding day a symbol of the ending of the Old Covenant and the freshness of the New Covenant beginning with our Lord turning water into wine. We can see in Mary’s noticing of the wine running short a concern for the young (and probably poor) couple who will soon be greatly embarrassed by not being able to provide for their guests. The first step of true mercy is noticing needs and not being indifferent toward others in their plight. This is a good witness Mary gives us during this Year of Mercy.
My father was brought up in a Presbyterian household although how staunch it was is open for debate. A story I once heard was of an exchange which occurred sometime after my father’s conversion when my two great aunts from Mississippi made a visit to my grandfather and grandmother. Noticing a little dust on the family Bible one aunt is said to have remarked, “Maybe if that Bible was not dusty, Jack would never have converted.” A number of years later my own aunt (my father’s sister) would tell these same two great-aunts, “Michael has decided to enter Catholic seminary and we are very proud.” The southern equivalent of drawing a line in the sand!
My mother did not grow up in affluence as my father did. Her childhood was spent in a small town in North Carolina. Nominally, I believe that she was raised Baptist but it seems that church was not a major factor in her younger years. She did once tell me that for a while she worked at a local Methodist retreat center frequented by the young (and then single) Billy Graham. “All the young ladies would swoon over him,” my mom once confided. She never said if she was one of the ones swooning. Right out of high school my mother left Brevard to work in book-keeping for a man who owned a number of hotels scattered around the southeast. Mr. Faw was a good man. He looked like Colonel Sanders, the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, and for the fun of it would sometimes dress like the fast food icon just to see people’s reaction. Mrs. Faw was of Eastern European descent and she once gave my mother an eighteenth century lithograph of the Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus. My mother treasured this gift and today it hangs on my wall.
At one point (prior to marrying my father) my mother was sent to a hotel owned by Mr. Faw in Oak Ridge, TN. At that time it was the only hotel in the city and therefore the temporary residence of visiting scientists from all over the world who came to do work and research in the government-run laboratories. My mother met a wide variety of people those years and at one point was approached by the FBI to help keep tabs on a visiting couple that the government thought had Russian connections. For this effort my mother received a signed letter from J. Edgar Hoover thanking her for her service to her country. One scientist my mother met and became a good friend of was a Franciscan nun from the Northeast. She taught at a university and had come to Oak Ridge to do some research. She and my mother remained friends for many years and I do believe that her friendship and that of Mr. and Mrs. Faw were what helped my mother in recognizing the beauty of the Catholic faith which, in turn, enabled her to make the choice to become Catholic.
My father and mother each walked their own journey of life and of faith (like we all do) but through their journeys and their own reflecting on experiences (i.e. use of the illative sense) they both came to belief in God and in the Church. I do not know all the experiences that added up to their each making their choice for faith. I never will and that is probably for the best. There are some things rightly left between the soul and God alone. These are and will remain the missing jigsaw pieces of their own journeys but I must admit that I do take great delight when I hear a story or memory shared that sheds a little more light on the journey each one had. These insights bring me joy and, I believe, are gifts given to help us who remain to continue our own journeys of life and faith.
Some of the best advice I ever came across regarding homily preparation was in an essay written by Annie Dillard. In the essay Dillard made use of the imagery of following bees as a way of exploring the adventure of writing. If you want to find a bee hive (and honey) then follow a bee. If you lose sight of the first bee then wait and when you catch sight of another bee follow it. By so doing you will eventually be led to the bee hive. The same is true for writing. When an idea or thought, no matter how strange or non-sensical it seems at the outset, pops in your head then follow it. Let the thought lead you even if you do not know exactly where it is going. It may take you to where you want to go. If it takes you only so far then stay there and wait for the next thought.
The Alternate Path 