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10 January 2018

Children and Discernment

"... in those days, the Lord did not speak often..."  Those are the words in the opening para of today's first reading from the book of Samuel.  Really?  The Lord did not speak?  Perhaps a better way of putting it or understanding it would be to say, 'People were not used to listening' or 'It was not common to hear people say that the Lord spoke to them'.

What makes this episode of the call of Samuel is that the Lord is 'speaking' to a child!  How often would an adult tell a child to be open to listen to God speaking? Worse still, acknowledge the testimony of a child stating that the Lord has appeared or addressed him or her.  We expect and teach the children to listen to us, and no one else.  We ourselves are not atuned or open to anything beyond what we want to listen.

Another related aspect that struck me today is that the whole notion of discernment, which is now the vogue term in Salesian circles (and rightly should be so), is not something that we grow up with.  It is only after we become 'adults' that this process of discernment is introduced into our life and living.  Some may say that children are intellectually incapable of discerning, especially matters beyond the physical.  But if they don't get a taste of what it means to discern and are thereby assisted meaningfully (as in the case of Samuel, by Eli), how will they ever acquire the habit of discernment, especially spiritual discernment?  Perhaps it is we adults who are not really willing to undergo the process of discernment and in turn, prevent children and not trust them enough.  

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