2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 14, 2024

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Our call is listening to and following Jesus

John 1:35–42

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.

Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come, and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon.

Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus. He first found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). Then he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).

Music Meditations

Opening Prayer

Not to the wise and powerful of this world, O God of all blessedness, but to those who are poor in spirit
do you reveal in Jesus the righteousness of your kingdom.
Gathered here, like the disciples on the shore, we long to listen as Jesus, the teacher, speaks.
By the power of his word, refashion our lives in the pattern of the beatitudes.
We ask this through your son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Companions for the Journey

A homily delivered by Father Brendan McGuire in 2021:

“Speak Lord, your servant is listening.”

We tend to listen to those who we like. Whether that is CNN or FOX News;
whether it is ABC or NBC; whether that is President-Elect Biden or President Trump;
whether it is our Uncle Joe or Auntie Betty, whether it is Pope Francis or Rush Limbaugh.
Whoever we like, we tend to listen to. Here is the part that is also true,
we tend to become like them. It makes sense, right? Those to whom we listen and whom we spend time with
and the more time we spend with them, the more we will become like them. It is true for all of us.
Today’s scripture readings are about who we listen to; and then who we follow.
They are about vocational calls. We have this beautiful text from the first reading,
which is the call of young Samuel as a prophet and judge. He was so young at the time,
he did not even know how to listen well. It took the fourth time of God calling that he listened to him
but even Eli who is the old prophet misunderstood also. We hear that it eventually dawns on Eli, he says,
“Oh the next time you hear, then just say ‘Speak Lord, your servant is listening.’”
In other words, it takes some training to listen well. Even Eli, in the older part of his ministry
is struggling with guiding the young Samuel.
And then in today’s gospel this beautiful exchange with the first disciple who has been called by Jesus.
Andrew is the disciple of John the Baptist and John says, “Look. There is the lamb of God.”
In other words, follow him; listen to him. And they do.
They go and they follow him. And Jesus says, “What do you really want?”
He drew them out of themselves. What were they really wanting?
Were they really wanting to listen and follow? Or just listen from a distance?
He invites them to come and to see, so to listen, to come, to see.
And they liked what they heard. They liked what they saw. And they followed Jesus.
So much so that Andrew runs off and tells his brother, Peter, who of course becomes the leader of the apostles and our first pope.
He obviously listened well.
This challenge of listening is true for all of us. I mean, we can get caught up in lots of different things
but who we listen to, who we spend time with is generally who we follow. And that is true of our faith in a profound way.
And this is the challenge sometimes. We tend to listen to preachers,
even listening to me or listening to someone else
and we want to make sure that who we are listening to is doing what John the Baptist did,
which is pointing to Jesus so that we listen directly to Jesus.
And then hopefully we will like what we hear and then follow Jesus more deeply, more profoundly.
And then do as Andrew did, which is share that message with others. This is this beautiful virtuous circle
that we like what we hear and we share what we hear because it is so powerful because it is so changing.
This liking and following is very much the call of every vocation whether it is as a priest or whether it is as a lay person.
Think about when you met your spouse for the first time, there are those people who see and fall in love at first sight.
That is true. That does happen. Or at first hearing, we hear what they say and we are transfixed by what they say.
And that does happen but for most of us—most of us—we listen and then a bit like Eli we have to listen again and listen again.
And then we like what we hear; or we look; and then look again; and look again.
And then we like what we see. But that is not enough for a marriage or any vocation.
We have to keep looking and keep listening until we fall in love. Now again, I know that can happen and
what we hear today is a very dramatic story in the gospel. It seems to be on the first hearing.
I suspect that these disciples had heard of Jesus and had heard Jesus before but now their hearts were open in a new way.
They move from liking what they saw to loving what they saw and heard. And that is how you come to follow.
Let’s face it, anyone of your marriages starts with that liking but somewhere along the line,
you love who you see and who you hear; and you want to be in their presence as much as possible.
That is what falling in love is all about. And in that loving enterprise, you become more with what you see.
You become like your spouse more and more and they become like you more and more every day.
And that is a good thing, I hope, for both of you.
But it is not magic.
It just doesn’t happen. I mean it is a commitment to listening and spending time with them so that you will follow.
The social media companies have figured this out. That is why they have fed us;
that is why we are in the bit of the trouble we are in because we like what we see or hear and
when then they feed more of us so we have this sort of echo chamber that we just get what we like and then that goes to an extreme.
And what happens is we hear nothing else. Very few of us will listen to people who we do not like;
because we don’t like them we are not going to listen to them. That becomes this echo chamber that is really dangerous.
We have to open our hearts and our minds to those whom we do not like and find out what they have to say that is good.
And acknowledge the good. And if we do not like what others have to say then we need to be able to articulate that in a calm and civil way.
For the purposes of our discipleship, let’s be very clear: We are called to listen to Jesus Christ.
We are called to listen to God’s Son. That is why we call ourselves Christian because we are Christ-followers.

Sometimes, we do not like what Jesus has to say. And the temptation is to turn Jesus off
but then we will not become like him anymore. Oh, we might be a Catholic.
We might be a Christian even but that does not make us true Christ-like people.
That does not make us followers of Jesus the Christ, the Messiah. That requires of us, like Eli and Samuel,
a deeper listening; a willingness to spend time with him so that we can answer God just like Samuel did:
“Speak Lord. I am listening. I come to do your will.”
One of the challenges is that we are terrified of giving ourselves over blindly to God’s Will.
What is God’s Will for me? How do I even know what that is? I received a beautiful little reading from Thomas Merton,
the great American Trappist. He says this:
“Doing God’s Will is not giving ourselves over to some divine fate but rather submitting ourselves to the creative action
that God and I will co-create together.” It is a beautiful way to understand that
God does not have this destiny per se for us but that creatively together, by agreeing and
listening to what Jesus has to say to us, what Christ is guiding us to we come to know God’s Will and
together creatively it comes alive in our life; into action and into word that is more like Christ and like God.
In short, what we are called to do is to listen to Jesus even when we do not like what he has to say
because we are called to listen deeper. And then when we spend time, which of course you have heard me say 1,000 times,
spend time in prayer, listening to Jesus but not just in the silence of our own room but in everything that God has in our life;
to our family; to our friends; to every good action that happens God is speaking loudly to us.
Christ helps us to understand what that is.
Then if we do that well, we will become more of what we listen to; we will become more like Christ.
That is the echo chamber that I want to be in. That is the echo chamber I hope that you want to be in;
to listen to Christ well so that I can become more like Christ better each and every day. That is what we do when we come to the Eucharist. We become what we receive. The Body of Christ broken for others. The Blood of Christ poured out for others.
“Speak Lord, your servant is listening.”

Further reflection and study:

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

“Come, and you will see.”

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

  • Where is Jesus?
    Where do I think He stays?
    Can He be found in my life?
  • Are you searching for something?
    What are the deepest longings of your heart?
    Have you looked for answers in another person, in a life event, or a sudden epiphany?
  • What, exactly are you searching for: (answers to a big life question, love, purpose, happiness, money, for example)?
    Or are you not looking for anything new in your life at this time?
  • Has there been a teacher in your life who really inspired you to look for something new and different?
    Did you have a personal relationship to this person?
    Was it scary or exhilarating?
    Have you ever been influenced by someone else’s willingness to try something new or to change your mind about something?
  • How would you respond, if instead of really answering a question, a person invited you to “come and see”?
    Are there rewards in this leap into to unknown?
    Are there dangers?
  • Is it important to you to be a seeker at all times in your life?
    What are you waiting for?
  • When was the first time in your life you felt drawn to get to know Jesus better?
    Do you feel that you know Him now?
  • We don’t know if Andrew ever preached or led a group; but he changed the course of Jesus’ mission.
    Notice that Peter was brought to Jesus by his brother Andrew, after Andrew had stayed quite a while to learn something about Jesus
  • Adapted from Paul Gallagher, OFM (Young Adult Ministry—Spiritual Direction, St. Peter Church, Chicago):
    Do you know the story behind how you were named?
    Do you have a nickname and how did you get it?
    Do you have a nickname that is not known to everyone?
    How is the name an expression of your relationship to the person who gave it to you, to the people who use it?
    What name might Jesus give you right now?
  • Adapted from Paul Gallagher:
    If you were Simon, what would you be thinking when you meet Jesus and he says that you are going to be called Peter/Cephas?
  • Do I know of anyone whom I might take to meet Jesus?
    Have I ever brought someone to the Church, to Jesus, to a better life?
    Do I realize how important this is?
  • Adapted from Paul Gallagher:
    If Jesus would ask you what are you looking for, what would you say?
    Are you looking?
    Where are you looking?
    What behaviors would point to the fact that you are really looking?
  • Adapted from Paul Gallagher:
    Is the pattern of John the Baptist, Andrew and Peter in the gospel present in how you have been led at times in your relationship with God?
    Is it true now?
    Could it be how God would like to work in your life now: to lead you to a more intimate relationship with God?
    Are you looking?
  • From Barbara Reid, O.P. (Professor of Scripture, Dean at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago):
    Who was instrumental in bringing you to Jesus? Pray in thanksgiving for them.
    Whom do you bring to Jesus?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Adapted from Sacred Space, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

Andrew and his companion set aside their day to be in Jesus’ company. Impressed, they decided to be followers of his. When we meet a new person, we must first give ourselves a change to know them. Then, if we like what we see, we are attracted to everything they stand for. Do we give Jesus a chance in our busy lives so that the attraction of his person can work on us? Jesus’ question to them was very profound: “What are you looking for?” Many would say: “I’m not looking for anything, I am just trying to survive”. But in sober moments we realize that we would like our lives to be more than getting and spending, eating and sleeping. When I ask myself what I am truly looking for, am I ready to hear the answer in my heart? Might it be Jesus? What are the implications of that? How might my life be changed, enriched, or challenged both by the question, and by choosing to follow Jesus? A simple invitation to “come and see” what Jesus is all about challenges us to spend some time in prayer, time with the scriptures and maybe time talking with another about what it really means to follow Jesus. Someone said “you would not be looking for Jesus unless you had already found Him”. Maybe I need to realize that Jesus has already found me…

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:

Read this poem from an unknown classmate in a graduate course on John, and imagine that Jesus is speaking these words to you:

In the beginning was the Word.
A Word who must be spoken.
A Word spoken into skies.
and called into hills.
Spoken into rivers and fields
A Word Spoken into life
in flowers
in birds
and in every kind of animal.
A Word spoken with love and breathed into
the heart of man and woman
that they might be ready to hear.
And when the time came that all was in readiness,
The Word was spoken into flesh,
spoken to call his own
out of the darkness and into the light.
To those who would know this Word, he beckoned
and still is beckoning—now—to you.
Come, see where I live;
spend your time with me
Be my own,
Be disciple.
Is the question of the first who followed your question still:
Teacher, where do you live in my world?
The answer they heard is the same,
which, in silence you will know:
Come, I will take you there.
I live within your heart.
Your heart that I have seen,
Your heart that I have known
I live there, calling you beyond yourself
Calling you into my own life,
Calling you to the vision of my Father
Calling you to be fishers of people.
Calling you to be disciple.
Poetic Reflection:

from Fr. Michael Kennedy, in “First Impressions” 2006:

“Suddenly It All Makes Sense”

(2nd Sunday Ordinary Time)

Sometime we
Should use the Gospel of
This day to remind ourselves
And others that the fourth
Gospel has the call of Peter
Happening in simple human
Interaction and not from
A trumpet blast or a
Quick appearance of
Gabriel or Raphael
Or even Michael
And we sometimes
Forget that Jesus did not
Just want missionaries since He
Did not just say go and preach and
Baptize to the ends of the earth for
He also said come and be with Me
And let your eyes and hearts be
Opened and this part of the call
To discipleship is every bit as
Important as preaching and
Teaching and baptizing for
Without hospitality the
Message is as phony as
Any contemporary
Promise to solve
Issues of justice
Sometime
Or not
****
And we must
Never forget that it was
The call to come and see that
Got Peter to commit and amazingly
It is what gets us today too for
When we experience the joy of
Feeling at home it is still true
That suddenly it all
Makes sense

— from “Musings from Michael” © Michael J. Kennedy 2006

Closing Prayer

Dear Jesus, we have heard your call and it compels us to follow. Bless me with a clear sense of my call. Make me sensitive to the action of your spirit. Give me wisdom and courage to act on your call on behalf of the people or situations I encounter [Pause to recall the issues you want to pray about.] Give me ears to hear and eyes to see.