JOHN 1:35-42
Dear Friends, Today we begin Ordinary Time. It is a good time to answer the question, what is a Gospel? It is neither a life of Jesus nor a summary of His teachings. It is a presentation of Jesus so we may have an encounter of faith with Jesus just as the disciples did when He walked the dusty roads of Galilee and taught and healed and called as He proclaimed the Good News.
John’s passage today has two fundamental questions for us if we are going to encounter Jesus in faith. The first is, “What are you looking for?” (Jn 1:38) This touches the deep drive in every human heart. We are all looking for happiness. It is a lifelong search with seemingly endless dead ends of frustration, confusion and pain. Yet the hunger persists.
Jesus offers a simple invitation and call, “Come and you will see.” (Jn 1:39) Jesus knows the human heart was made for God and, in the end, it will only be satisfied and fulfilled when it finds and embraces God.
Our journey this year is primarily with the Jesus of St. Mark’s Gospel. We are invited to “Come and see”. We are called to have an encounter with Jesus, an encounter of faith just as real as Andrew and Peter in today’s Gospel.
We do not need information about Jesus. We need to open our heart and our life to him on a daily basis. It is in a growing and deepening relationship with Jesus that we slowly grasp with more clarity and more depth what we are looking for. We begin to see the truth that comes from the journey of walking with Jesus.
Once again, the Church invites us to journey with the story of Jesus in St. Mark so we can be set free from the darkness of sin. We are asked to be the leper that is cleansed, the paralytic who is healed and forgiven, the hungry that are fed with the loaves and the fishes. We are asked to answer with Peter the awe-inspiring question of salvation, “Who do you say I am?” (Mk 8:27) We will be told to take up our cross and follow Him to Jerusalem. (Mk 8: 34)
Indeed, in so many ways over the coming months the invitation, “Come and you will see” (Jn 1:39) will help us answer the fundamental question of our human reality, “What are you looking for?” Jn (1:38)
It is by coming to Jesus in faith and gradual surrender and remaining with Him and listening afresh to His words and call that we answer His question, “Who do you say I am.” (Mk 8:27) At the same time we answer the important question, “What are you looking for?” (Jn 1:38) by realizing our own identity as children of God.
