Hannah and Samuel, Mary and Jesus

Today’s first reading at Mass came from the first Book of Samuel and continued the story of Samuel’s mother, Hannah. She was barren and wanted to have a child more than anything else in the world. Having known a few couples unable to have children, I think I can safely say that they have felt much like Hannah felt. So she did what any person of faith would do; she kicked the table. Just kidding. She trusted in God, knowing that He seeks to give us the desires of our heart, and she asked Him for a son.

“In her bitterness she prayed to the LORD, weeping copiously, and she made a vow, promising: ‘O LORD of hosts, if you look with pity on the misery of your handmaid, if you remember me and do not forget me, if you give your handmaid a male child, I will give him to the LORD for as long as he lives; neither wine nor liquor shall he drink, and no razor shall ever touch his head’ ” (1 Samuel 1:10-11). She asks God for a son and says that she will give that son back to God if God gives her one. She even goes so far as to say that he will be a Nazirite who does not cut his hair or eat or drink any product of grapes, especially wine (Sampson was another Nazirite). He will be specially consecrated to God.

The Responsorial Psalm comes from chapter two of First Samuel, and it was what Hannah prayed in the temple when she dedicated her son to God after she had weaned him. There are many parallels with what Mary prayed when she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth; the prayer is known as the Magnificat. The response today from Hannah’s prayer was: “My heart exults in the Lord, my Savior.”

There are many parallels between Hannah and Mary, the handmaids of the Lord. They were both deeply desirous of a son. Mary had come to terms with it when she had consecrated herself as a perpetual virgin and arranged to have a virginal marriage with Saint Joseph. Yet it was the crucifixion of her greatest earthly desire. As a virgin, Mary was “barren.” Hannah prayed, “The barren wife bears seven sons, while the mother of many languishes,” and Mary prayed, “He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.” They were both barren and empty, and they both were filled with “good things” because of their trust in God. They both gave their sons back to God, whenever and however He wanted them.

Right after the Passover in Exodus 13, “The LORD said to Moses, ‘Consecrate to me all the first-born; whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine’ ” (13:1-2). Later, I want to write in a more in-depth manner about the first born, but for now it is interesting to note that the first-born belong to God. The passages continues saying, “Every first-born of man among your sons you shall redeem” (Exodus 13:13). The first-born have to be paid for or bought back, for they belong to God. Samuel and Jesus are first-born, and they are offered back to God from Whom they came.

My theory is that Eve also wanted a son (just as Sarai did), and that this wanting was part of the test God devised to see if she loved and trusted Him: be fruitful and multiply but do not have relations. She sought her life and so lost it. Mary gave up her life and so gained it and was given the very Son of God for her faithfulness of giving up children altogether. Hannah desired a child, but she did not sin to try to get one. She prayed. She also realized that children are a gift from God, and so she was willing to give that gift back to God to use as He sees fit. God wanted to give her a child, and He wanted her to seek His help to have it. God tested Hannah and strengthened and purified her love and trust in Him through that test. She passed the test, as did Mary, and she gave birth to the great priest and prophet, Samuel.

Life and fruitfulness come from God, and they come via our faith and trust in Him. The other part of the theory is that the tree of life is the heart. It is the heart that loves, trusts and obeys God; any heart that does that has spiritual life. Any heart that does that bears good fruit and leads those in its vicinity closer to Christ. May you and I seek, ask and knock in faith, hope and love of God and so bear good fruit for Him.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

Barrenness is Death

The first reading of the first weekday of Ordinary Time comes from the first verses of the first Book of Samuel. The book starts with the mother of the great priest and prophet, Samuel, in great distress. She is unable to have children, and there is precious little that matters to Hannah if she cannot give birth to a child. Hannah is one of two wives to her husband, and “Her rival, to upset her, turned it into a constant reproach to her that the LORD had left her barren. This went on year after year; each time they made their pilgrimage to the sanctuary of the LORD, Peninnah would approach her, and Hannah would weep and refuse to eat” (1 Samuel 1:6). The other wife, Peninnah, rubbed it in that Hannah could not have a baby.

One point here is that children are considered a blessing in the Bible. In today’s world and culture, which is a culture of death, children are often considered a curse. This is the exact opposite of the mindset of the Bible. Children are always a blessing and gift from God, even if the manner by which they came about was evil or the timing of their arrival does not fit into our schedule.

The other side of children being a blessing is that, in the Old Testament, being barren is considered a curse. Barrenness is tantamount to death. Not passing on life, not having children, is to die and leave none of your life (children) behind. It is death. Virginity was not esteemed, and the inability to have children was a curse and reproach. There was little worse for a woman than to not have children.

Why do I make this point? I think it ties in with my main theory. The first man and woman feared death, and that is why thy sinned. The death they feared was not so much their own physical death, but it was their fear of not having a child. Not trusting in God and seeking to gain their life, to get a child, they disobeyed God and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In other words, they had relations and conceived Cain, meaning “gotten.” They got the life they were seeking, and he turned out to be death.

It is the fear of death which leads to a life of bondage; Jesus took on our human nature so “that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage” (Hebrews 2:14-15). Life comes via the tree of life; the tree of life is our heart, and insofar as we trust, love and obey God, we have life. Barrenness is, in many respects, death, and God does want us to be fruitful and full of life. However, the point is that, ultimately, life comes as a gift from God, not from ourselves or our abilities. We have to love and trust Him for that life; the fear of death keeps us separated from Him. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18).

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.