"How shall I make a return to the Lord for all the good he has done for me?  The cup of salvation I will take up, and I will call upon the name of the Lord." (Ps. 116:12-13)

Hannah of today's first reading is one of my heroines.  She knew the value of the "holy complaint."  Childless, she was a laughingstock to Peninnah, the other wife of her husband Elkanah.  Even though she was her husband's beloved, Hannah's misery could not be meliorated.  She wept.  She couldn't eat.  Her misery was palpable; she had no children.  No wonder she poured out her bitterness and sorrow to the Lord, and promised that if the Lord would just bless her with a son, she would dedicate him to the Lord forever!

Elkanah, her husband, could not understand her grief.  "Why do you grieve?  Am I not more to you than ten sons?"  He didn't get it.  Neither did Eli, the priest of God.  He thought Hannah was drunk as she prayed silently before the Lord, pouring out her heartaches, only moving her lips.  Little did Eli know that his own family's line of priest-descendants would be replaced by Hannah's!  Little did Hannah know that new life would issue from her womb, that she would bear not just one, but four sons and two daughters, and that her shame would be turned to profound joy!

Before the Lord, Hannah's prayer of petition was sacred.  Her holy complaint was the beginning of profound "reversals" in Israel's history.  The greatest would be least; the last would be first.  "The bows of the mighty are broken, while the tottering gird on strength.  The well-fed hire themselves out for bread, while the hungry batten on spoil.  The barren wife bears seven sons, while the mother of many languishes." (Hannah's prayer, 1 Sam. 2:4-5)

Hannah's first-born son, Samuel, would be a true servant of God and the greatest of all Israel's judges.  He would warn the Israelites to return to their worship of the one living God, and only he could purify the place of worship so that the Ark of the Lord could be returned to their midst.  He would anoint Saul, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and Saul's successor, David, a shepherd boy, who would become the greatest king in the history of their people, and the forerunner of the promised messiah.  Hannah's boy did all this; he was the first-born son of a woman whose prayer of lament was heard by God.  And in the end, she returned her son to God.

"'I prayed for this child, and the Lord granted my request.  Now I, in turn, give him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he shall be dedicated to the Lord.'  She left him there (in the Temple of the Lord)." (1 Sam. 1:27-28)

To me, this is the five-fold lesson from Hannah's story:  1) we are God's beloved; 2) God listens to our cries; 3) we should be open to new life, especially when hopelessness abounds; 4) we must learn to expect the unexpected; and 5) we should always return and give thanks to God by sharing our gifts with others.

"How shall I make a return to the Lord for all the good he has done for me?  The cup of salvation I will take up, and I will call upon the name of the Lord." (Ps. 116:12-13)