What it means to respond willingly to God’s call – wherever that may lead
Reflections on the readings for the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time (January 17, 2021): 1 SM 3:3-10,19; PS 40:2,4,7-8,8-9,10; 1 COR 6:13-15,17-20; JN 1:35-42
MISSIO offers “Preaching Mission,” as a homily help, providing connections to mission from the readings of Sundays, Feast Days and Holy Days.
If we entrust our lives to His will, we, also, will be followers of Christ with all that it demands and all the blessings it brings.
This Sunday we hear how John the Baptist who had preached and baptized and gained a number of followers essentially sent a couple of them to the Lord. “John 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?’” (John 1:35-38) These are the first words that Jesus says in the Gospel according to John. When the two indicate their interest by asking where He is staying, He tells them to “Come, and you will see.” Jesus might just as easily be talking to any one of us who seeks truth, light, and life. They went and stayed with Christ and whatever they heard convinced one of them, Andrew, to bring his brother to meet Jesus. They obviously had been looking for the Messiah and now, Andrew was convinced that they had found Him.
Was Simon surprised when Jesus immediately changed his name to Peter, meaning rock? Whatever these new followers of Christ thought, they certainly wanted to know more – to know Jesus more. They left behind their old lives because they had found a new one. They must have thought about the words John the Baptist used in describing Jesus as the Lamb of God. It would be obvious to connect a lamb with sacrifice since they were ceremonially offered in the Temple. However they could not have realized the depth or meaning of the sacrifice that our Savior would make by laying Himself on the altar of the cross. Nor could they have foreseen the level of sacrifice that would be asked of them in the years ahead. Yet they must have come to believe that they had been called to do what God asked – to be what God asked. And so are we all. If we entrust our lives to His will, we, also, will be followers of Christ with all that it demands and all the blessings it brings.
