Blog 22 December 1 Samuel 1:24-28; 2:1, 4-8

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Please read this passage before reading the homily.

This passage is a company ion piece to the Canticle of Mary in the Gospel according to Luke (1:46-56).

Hannah was barren and had no children, which was considered shameful or disgraceful for adult women who did not have children.  Like Abraham’s wife Sara Rachel, Jacob’s wife, and many other women in the Bible, Hannah would become the mother of a powerful leader and savior to the people.  She gave birth to Samuel and eventually dedicated himself to God in the Temple.

Abraham and Sarah bridged the gap between life in Mesopotamia and life in Canaan.  Moses had bridged the gap between Israel’s enslavement in Egypt and the freedom of the desert passage to the Promised Land.  Samuel provided a bridge between the Judges and the monarchy.  The Christian tradition would see John the Baptist as a bridge between the Hebrew and the Christian people of the Bible.  Jesus himself bridges the gap between God’s divine nature and our human nature.

As David beat Goliath, as Israel survived the desert, as the barren have children, and as the weak of the world have outlasted the poor and the weak, should we see in the birth of Jesus Christ how God uses the weakness of human nature to confound the mighty powers of strong Philistines, Egyptian overlords, conquering Greek and Romans, and those that have come later in our history.

This is the message of this passage from 1 Samuel.  It is the same as in Luke’s message cited above.  It is same with our generation.