2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

 Listening and Hearing, Looking and Seeing.

 These two phrases seem to go with the sense of the gospel this weekend. Overall the readings offer a reflection on the response to the call of God. What is the appropriate way to follow that call, and how best are we to integrate it into our lives? Most people’s experience of God comes from those around them. Very few can claim to have what might be termed the “Samuel experience” of the little voice in the head calling them in the night. More often than not we respond to God through each other, and as we are taught how to listen, we gradually come to hear and comprehend God’s presence. Likewise as we are prompted to look, we begin to see and are enlightened to the closeness of Jesus to us as we walk on our journey of faith. This is important for us to grasp since as we listen each week to extracts from the gospel, we can just experience them as biographical episodes in the life of Jesus without delving into them any deeper. In other words we are hearing the words without listening to them; we are looking at the facts without seeing the relevance of them for us. If we want to be followers of Christ, then we need to heed what he says and incorporate his message into the very fabric of our being.

But the words of the gospel are themselves an invitation and it is Jesus himself who offers it. John the Baptist’s identification of Jesus as the “lamb of God” begins the process which culminates in Andrew’s proclamation to his brother. These words possess a meaning and significance which in order to grasp, require that we dig deep into the subsoil of our own willingness to listen and hear, to look and see. The gospel is replete with these words, and each time they are spoken they should set off a little alarm bell in our minds that alerts us to their importance: Look… said John, hearing this… There is no doubt that we are being drawn into the dialogue and the question Jesus poses begins the excavating that is necessary. What do you want is more than just a casual off the cuff remark.  It is a searching question that opens up endless possibilities of personal self examination as is acknowledged by the disciples’ reply. Rabbi… Teacher, is fundamentally a request, they value the question but are themselves unable to contextualise or answer it. In other words they are asking for help, for guidance and direction. So their response where do you live… is more than a request for Jesus’ address. It is a request to set out the context for the dialogue, a dialogue which will permeate through the whole of John’s Gospel. Their “away day” with Jesus ends with Andrew’s stunning remark to his brother Peter: we have found the Messiah. There must have been a lot of digging and excavating that day in Jesus’ house!

The Lamb of God Francisco de Zubaran

The Lamb of God
Francisco de Zubaran

This outcome is important. Andrew is now one who will bring others to Christ. He becomes a facilitator of the gospel, leading his brother to the threshold of encounter with Jesus so that he too may explore the implications for him of the question Jesus asks. So it is for us, can we respond to the offer by becoming bearers of this good news and by bringing it to others?  If we are willing to listen and hear, to look and see then surely we can and we can do it through the influence that our lives, lived in the practice of the gospel, will have on others. Is it possible? Well think of that other disciple, the one who was with Andrew, and about whom we hear nothing. What happened to him? Interestingly John’s Gospel ends thus: This disciple is the one who vouches for these things and has written them down and we know that his testimony is true. Who was this disciple who wrote all these things down? Well sadly we don’t know, he remains anonymous, but is it just idle speculation to suggest that this person, this anonymous disciple who was with Andrew that day when Jesus passed by, was the evangelist himself?

 

 

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