John 1:35-42
Dear Friends, As we begin Ordinary Time once again, we have the opportunity to answer the question, what is a Gospel? It is neither a life of Jesus nor a summary of His teachings. A Gospel is the opportunity to encounter Jesus in faith. We now can meet Jesus in our weekly liturgy just as the disciples did when He walked the dusty roads of Galilee. He teaches, heals and calls us just as He proclaimed the Good News to the first believers.John’s passage today has two fundamental questions for us as we prepare to encounter Jesus in faith. The first is, “What are you looking for?” (Jn 1:38) This touches the deep hunger in every human heart. Jesus’ question is a challenge and a call to discipleship.
We are all looking for happiness. It is a lifelong search with seemingly endless dead-ends of frustration, confusion and pain. Yet the burning desire persists. We will find true healing and satisfaction for our troubled heart in walking with Jesus as a disciple. God shows us the way of discipleship in our life’s responsibilities and relationships, by the signs of the times and the ever-present cry of the poor and, more alarmingly in our day, the cry of the earth.
Jesus follows his initial question with 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. By his invitation, Jesus is showing us that God desires our presence. God is engaged in our life. God is calling us to an intimacy that opens the world and its wonders in a new and marvelous way.
Our liturgical 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.
In his command to join him, Jesus was offering much more than mere hospitality. Jesus was proposing an invitation to realize the truth, wisdom and freedom in the depth of our hearts. He was offering an answer to the pain and misery, the confusion and darkness of life. He would later explain the call as the way, the life and the truth.
We do not need more information about Jesus. We need to open our heart and our life to him in our daily experience. 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 in life. We begin to see the truth that comes from the journey of walking with Jesus.
Once again, as we begin Ordinary Time, 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. With Peter we need to face 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 crucial question, “What are you looking for?” (Jn 1:38) by realizing our own identity as children of God.
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