Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Jan. 17, 2021. Gospel of St. John 1:35-42. Theme: What Are You Looking For?
Today we have our first Sunday Mass in Ordinary Time. I find it extremely fitting that our spiritual journey for 2021 starts off with the very first words of Jesus that are recorded in the Gospel of John: “What are you looking for?” Our belief that Scripture as the Living Word of God tells us that he is speaking these words today, right now, to both you and to me. He is asking each one of us right now: What is it that you are looking for? In other words, what is it that you most ardently desire? What are you truly searching for in life?
And I think that the one basic thing which we are all looking for, each one of us in our own way is what every human being is really desiring, always looking for: love. Real, authentic, genuine unconditional love. We all yearn to be known for who we really are and not for who we pretend to be in order to win the esteem of others. We all thirst deep down to be wanted, to be accepted for who we are, for what we are and as we are.
And St. John is telling us that all these things can be ours in Jesus. There is something about this Man when we encounter him. He simply needs to make himself known and people suddenly drop everything to follow after Him like Andrew and Peter in today’s Gospel. Why? Who is he? And why does he possess such charisma and power? St. John answers these questions for us by telling us right here in the beginning of his Gospel that Jesus is the Lamb, the Messiah, and the Teacher. The rest of his Gospel will show us what these mean and why Jesus alone is the one who can satisfy the longings of our hearts.
John reveals that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes upon himself the guilt of our sins, which is the reason why we so often feel unworthy of love. Contained in this title is the awesome truth that when this Lamb was sacrificed upon the altar of the cross, the sins of all who would come to trust in him were also crucified, put to death. And when this Lamb rose triumphantly from the grave, those crucified sins stayed behind, dead and buried. They exist no more and so cannot hold us back from reaching out and accepting God’s love. So give your sins to the Lamb of God, through your prayer and your confessions, so that they might be annihilated by the power of his cross and resurrection and you can be set free!
John also informs us that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the Glorious Liberator of God’s People. The coming of the Messiah was the hope of every Jewish heart. He was to bring good news to the poor, sight to the blind and freedom for the enslaved. But this is just not something for past times, because we ourselves so easily become slaves of greed or anger or lust or various destructive behaviors. St. John is reminding us that we are all without exception spiritually blind and enslaved and so we all stand in need of God’s Messiah- Liberator. He will open our eyes to see that we are loved beyond all measure by God. He will break open the chains that shackle our hearts from reaching out to accept Christ’s invitation of friendship and discipleship.
Finally, today’s Gospel calls Jesus “Rabbi” which means “Teacher”. The remainder of John’s Gospel will lay out before us the most important lessons we need to learn in the school of this Rabbi if we truly want to be freed from our sense of internal emptiness and spiritual wandering. Jesus the Teacher will instruct us in how to live our everyday lives and interact with others in a way that brings us deep inner peace and satisfy the longings of our hearts. So, if this is what we truly desire, then we must read the Gospels often and reflectively so as to learn the lessons of Rabbi Jesus and put them into practice.
But now here is the thing: precisely how these desires can be met and satisfied within us is different for each one of us. And so, each one of us needs to make known to Jesus our own particular desires, our own unique needs. St. John is directing us to approach Jesus ourselves, one-on-one like Andrew. We must spend time with Christ and go apart with him, wherever that might be – in church before the Blessed Sacrament, in our room at home, on a solitary walk – whatever it takes for us to spend time with him like St. Andrew in today’s Gospel.
We Christians call this intentional time with Jesus prayer. Or more precisely, prayer of the heart which is very different from simply reciting many prayers. Prayer of the heart is a conversation carried out in quiet and solitude, so that we can be undisturbed in our time with Jesus and listen for his voice. And with experience and patience, we will indeed hear it echo within us, with words or ideas that suddenly come to mind. We will come to recognize that it is him speaking because his Word gives us a sense of inner conviction and serenity.
Start this prayer of the heart with Jesus today. And be faithful to it daily. Book it into your schedule. It’s the most important time that you will invest in your life. Tell Jesus what kind of happiness you are desiring deep down in your heart. Don’t be afraid to ask for anything, whatever it is, because He is more than willing to give it to you… as long as you are more than willing to honestly answer his question: What are you looking for?
John the Baptist was standing 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?”
No comments:
Post a Comment