We have finished celebrating
our joyful Christmas season. We now have
5 Sundays in Ordinary Time before we start the holy season of Lent. Both this Sunday and next Sunday, we hear two different
conversions stories as different individuals choose to accept Jesus’ call to
follow a life of discipleship. Today, two of John the Baptist are intrigued by Jesus,
and they engage in a process to find out what Jesus is all about. In next Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus sees some
fishermen at work in the Sea of Galilee, calling them to be fishers of men.
Jesus gives the men in today’s Gospel a very
welcoming invitation - “Come and see” Since the time of those first disciples, Jesus
and his followers have been witnesses to their faith and have been inviting
others to come join them. John the
Baptist himself witnessed to two of his own disciples, calling Jesus “the Lamb
of God”. By doing so, John expands their view of who Jesus
really is. In fact, near the end of John’s Gospel, the
author states that this witness and these signs have been recorded here in the
Gospel in order that we may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son
of God, and through this belief, that we might come to have new life in him.
“Come and see” is not only the invitation these
young men receive in today’s Gospel; it is the invitation all of us receive. Yet sometimes we can be like Samuel in our first
reading. God kept calling out to Samuel, but Samuel was
confused. Samuel wasn’t sure who was calling out to him. It took four tries before Samuel could respond
directly to God. Sometimes we don’t recognize God immediately. However
the main thing is that we not give up, that we keep listening until we
recognize his voice.
“Come and see.” Like this welcoming invitation that Jesus extends
to us, we as believers are called to witness and invite others to the faith,
too. Look at how Andrew responds in the Gospel today –
he is a great example for us to follow. He hears the witness of John the Baptist, then
goes with Jesus to where he is staying, and he stays with him. He then searches out his brother, Simon Peter,
telling him with great excitement – “We have found the Messiah!” Andrew brings his brother to Jesus. He is so excited about sharing his new-found
faith with others.
As we hear the conversion stories of these first
disciples, perhaps we’re thinking, “Well, today’s Gospel story really doesn’t
pertain to me. I’m already a follower of
Jesus. It’s not like I don’t know him or don’t already practice my faith in my
own way.” Yet,
perhaps we’re called to look at our faith today and see how we can strengthen
it, to see how we can live it out more fully, to see how our faith can serve as
a witness to others. All of us in the modern world need to look
at the different ways in which we are called to conversion. Perhaps we are the believer who is entrenched in
a kind of religious legalism, in which we look at our faith as a check list of
rules and commandments, expecting ourselves and all Christians to follow all of
these rules to the letter of the law, in a very legalistic, rigid way. That is sort of the way the Pharisees did it
back in Jesus’ day, isn’t it? Or, to the other extreme, perhaps we think that
since we believe in God, since we’re baptized into the faith, that we can sort
of do whatever we want to do because we are already saved. Or perhaps we just go through the motions of our
faith without taking any risks or chances. We do the bare minimum and think
that this is enough. Perhaps we don’t really trying to discern God’s specific
will for us in our lives, not allowing our faith to mold us and change us and
transform us. Maybe one of these descriptions applies to us and
points to the type of conversion we need today.
We also see this in today’s readings: the stories
of Andrew in today’s Gospel and of Samuel in today’s first reading show us
how our life as Christians has to be rooted in a personal experience with God. We’re called to hear the way God is calling out
to us today and we’re called to respond to that reality. But we can’t be short-sighted in the way we view
our reality – short-sighted in the way we approach our faith. Think of Andrew and other disciple of John the
Baptist – if they had just thought of the here and now and did not look at the
big picture, they probably wouldn’t have taken the risk to leave their teacher
to follow Jesus. We need to remember what we are focused on: we
are on our journey of faith for the long haul, not just looking at the here and
now of the present moment. Perhaps we are focused on the present and the
short-term because we are overwhelmed with what is going on in our lives. For a lot of us, 2014 was a rough year,
especially with the tornado that devastated a big part of our city. A lot of families have come a long way
rebuilding, our parish has come a long way, but there is still a lot to do. We might have had struggles or challenges at
school or at work, with our health or with our relationships. We have had a lot of changes and challenges and a
rocky road here in our parish as well last year. Some of us have had our feelings hurt along the
way, or perhaps we don’t understand the need for the changes we have had at our
parish. However, we need to look at the big picture that
is beyond our individual needs and desires.
We are certainly a big, diverse parish.
The needs are varied and many. Perhaps we don’t understand the needs of
others or see beyond our own comfort zone. The big picture is this: we are trying to build
up the Kingdom of God here at St James.
We are doing our best to make disciples, just as Christ called forth his
disciples in today’s Gospel. Keeping our
focus on what matters is important.
And as we are thinking of discipleship and
witnessing, I want to mention this: how are we being witnesses for the faith. In a month from today – February 18 –
we will start our Lenten journey with Ash Wednesday. Maybe each one of us here in the pews can reach
out to someone who is not coming regularly to parish or to was perhaps engaged
here at our parish at one time, but for one reason or another is not very
active anymore. Perhaps we can invite them to our Ash Wednesday
service, or to join us on our Lenten journey, or to start coming back to the
Sunday masses. We need to be more inviting and welcoming. We need to reach out to our brothers and
sisters in the faith. Let us accept the
invitation Jesus gives us today to truly be a witness for him in the world.
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