In the middle of the night, a young man hears a voice calling his name. “Samuel.” He gets up from his bed, runs to Eli, the old priest with whom he grew up, and answers: “Here I am, you called me.” But Eli did not call him. Samuel lies down again, and once more he hears the voice. Again he gets up and runs to Eli. Only on the third time does Eli understand what Samuel himself cannot yet comprehend: it is God who is calling the young Samuel. This story, told in the third chapter of the First Book of Samuel, takes place at a time when “the word of the LORD was rare in those days; visions were not frequent.” In a reality where God’s voice could barely be heard, it is precisely a young person who hears it — yet he does not yet know who is speaking to him. In this moment lies something profoundly human.
How often do we hear something without yet knowing what we are actually hearing? A feeling...
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