O.T. II (B) SUNDAY JN 1: 35-42

All of us here today want to know and follow God's will for our lives. Some more and some less, but all of us share, at least to some degree, that fundamental desire; it's one of the reasons we have come to Mass. This desire is in itself a sign of God's presence in our souls, a sign that he is guiding us. Many of our brothers and sisters in Christ have received the same baptism and Catholic formation that we have, and yet, they don't come to Mass anymore. They no longer desire to follow Christ; they have chosen to follow someone else. But somehow God has kept alive in our hearts that prayer uttered so beautifully in today's Psalm: "Here I am, O Lord, I come to do your will." We should be deeply grateful that God has kept that desire burning. But, on the other hand, how can we discover what God's will is?

Today, God is reminding us of one of his most favorite methods of communicating his will: through human messengers. The young prophet Samuel had been chosen to lead and instruct God's people and to anoint the first two Kings of ancient Israel. But when God first started to speak to Samuel's heart, the future spiritual hero didn't even know how to recognize his voice. Eli, his spiritual guide and a priest of God, had to teach him.

John and Andrew had been chosen by God to become two of the twelve pillars of the Church, the Apostles. And yet, Jesus walked right by them on the bank of the River Jordan, and they didn't even recognize him. John the Baptist had to point him out, twice, before they got the message and decided to follow their calling.

When two of John’s disciples follow Jesus, he turns and asks them what they are seeking.  Somewhat confused, they ask Jesus where he is staying.  Jesus does not tell them. Instead, he invites them to “come and see.”  For each of us, belief in Jesus develops in stages, which John appears to be describing.  First, we respond to testimony given by others.  Then, having "seen" where Jesus dwells - we move to commitment based on our own experience of the risen Lord.  Finally, our conversion is completed when we become witnesses for Jesus.  In Andrew's case, his conversion reveals his belief in Jesus as the Messiah. He then brings his brother Peter to Christ.  The evangelist sets out a challenging pattern for evangelization.  The first people to be evangelized preached Jesus in their turn to relatives, friends, and even to strangers.  We, too, must find and grow in faith through the lifelong seeking of God's will, coming to God through Jesus, whom we find in the local Christian community.

A recent survey conducted among members of the Catholic Church found that the majority of those who were interviewed reported having mystical, life-changing experiences with God. But the majority of those who reported having such experiences also said they had never told anyone about them. When they were asked to explain that, most of them answered, "Because people would think I was crazy, or a Jesus freak or something."

Nathan Williams told of two men who had been business partners for over twenty years. They met one Sunday morning as they were leaving a restaurant. One of them asked, "Where are you going this morning?" "I'm going to play golf. What about you?" The first man responded rather apologetically, "I'm going to church." The other man said, "Why don't you give up that church stuff?" The man asked, "What do you mean?" "Well, we have been partners for twenty years. We have worked together, attended board meetings together, and had lunch together, and all of these twenty years you have never asked me about going to church. You have never invited me to go with you. Obviously, it doesn't mean that much to you."

If God is number one in our life, if we had God experience, we cannot keep it bottled up. If we do that, our own faith will wane away. Faith, to grow, has to be shared. A tree when grows, puts out branches. Sometimes we get so much rut in our spiritual activities that they no longer interest us, and we don’t take care to share it with others.

In his book, Finding God in Unexpected Places, author Philip Yancey describes the time he and his wife visited Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone Park. They were having lunch in the lodge, watching the digital clock ticking down the minutes until the next big splash. When the clock reached 30 seconds, diners left their tables and rushed over to the windows overlooking the geyser. When Old Faithful erupted, and all the tourists were ooohing and aahing, Yancey looked over his shoulder and saw that the waitresses and busboys were using this time to clear tables of their dirty dishes and garbage. They had become so familiar with that spectacular eruption that it no longer impressed them; it no longer held their interest.

And Yancey wondered if that isn’t also true in the church? Jesus is the Savior of the world, the Creator of the Universe, the very Son of God who came into our world to die on the cross so that we might have eternal life; and he has become to us, boring in our services. And we are unwilling to give one hour of our time for him on Sunday?

How can we make our services invigorating and nourishing and life-changing? Hold the wonder of the mystery we share each time we come here. Andrew and John even knew exactly at what hour they first met Jesus. Decades and decades after the incident they still remembered that 4.o’clock meeting with the Lord. Like Andrew and his companion I need a quiet hour, a quiet evening, in which the Lord can ask me, "What are you looking for?"  Sometimes my heart may not be sure what exactly my heart is looking for. Am I willing to spend a quiet hour with him everyday, so that I can really know what I am looking for?