2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
This Sunday we return to Ordinary Time with the Christmas and new year festivities a now distant memory. Our readings for the second Sunday in ordinary time are all about how god is calling his people. In the first reading we read about ‘Samuel’s Call’. Three times he hears God calling but thinks it is Eli a Temple priest and goes to him. Eli finally understands that it is God calling Samuel and tells him that next time he hears the voice to say, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening”. The reading concludes with the thought that God dwelt with Samuel and that he spoke in God’s name. In this Sunday’s Gospel the apostles asked Jesus “Where do you live”? his reply was the invitation for them to “Come and see”. As well as the Apostles all of us are invited and welcome to come and see where Jesus lives as well as what’s going on in our Faith Communities. When we accept the invitation of Jesus we have to ask ourselves why do we come and what do we seek? The early disciples of Jesus must have asked themselves those same questions. They lived in a culture that distrusted anything new.
We also live in a culture that distrusts many things especially faith and all it represents. The people in this gospel story are like you and me they are people looking and searching for God. Like the disciples we are seekers who want to find Jesus and stay or at least try and stay him. John’s disciples were seekers and it is late in the day for them as the gospel tells us. “It was about the tenth hour around four in the afternoon,” when the disciples received their invitation from Jesus. They need rest from their search and Jesus is offering it to them. The “four in the afternoon” possibly refers to the beginning of the Sabbath the next day. The disciples spend time with Jesus, they are transformed. One of the disciples, Andrew, is so moved by his encounter with Jesus that he immediately goes to find Simon his brother and tells him, “We have found the Messiah”. Andrew’s response is a beautiful example of evangelization. He cannot keep the good news to himself; he feels compelled to share it with others. This is a reminder for us that encountering Christ should lead us to share the joy of the Gospel with those around us. Simon, upon meeting Jesus, is given a new name, Cephas, which means “rock.”
This renaming signifies the mission that Jesus would give him, to be the rock upon which he will build his Church. Just as the disciples were transformed by their encounter with Jesus, we too are invited to open our hearts to him, to seek him with sincerity, and to respond to his call. It is not a passive following to which we are called. This is about making room for him in our hearts and our lives, becoming the living embodiment of the Gospel. May our encounter with Jesus and what he teaches us deepen our faith, transform our lives, and inspire us to be witnesses of his love in the world wherever we are.
Fullerton T 