Come And See

2^nd Sunday of OT

January 15^th, 2012

Come And See!

Reading 1 1 Sm 3:3b-10, 19

Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the LORD where the ark of God was. The LORD called to Samuel, who answered, “Here I am.” Samuel ran to Eli and said, “Here I am. You called me.” “I did not call you, “ Eli said. “Go back to sleep.” So he went back to sleep. Again the LORD called Samuel, who rose and went to Eli. “Here I am, “ he said. “You called me.” But Eli answered, “I did not call you, my son. Go back to sleep.”

At that time Samuel was not familiar with the LORD, because the LORD had not revealed anything to him as yet. The LORD called Samuel again, for the third time. Getting up and going to Eli, he said, “Here I am. You called me.” Then Eli understood that the LORD was calling the youth. So he said to Samuel, “Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply, Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.” When Samuel went to sleep in his place, the LORD came and revealed his presence, calling out as before, “Samuel, Samuel!” Samuel answered, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” Samuel grew up, and the LORD was with him, not permitting any word of his to be without effect.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10

R. (8a and 9a)

Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will. I have waited, waited for the LORD, and he stooped toward me and heard my cry. And he put a new song into my mouth, a hymn to our God.

R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will. Sacrifice or offering you wished not, but ears open to obedience you gave me. Holocausts or sin-offerings you sought not; then said I, “Behold I come.”

R. Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will. “In the written scroll it is prescribed for me, to do your will, O my God, is my delight, and your law is within my heart!”

R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will. I announced your justice in the vast assembly; I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know.

R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.

Reading II 1 Cor 6:13c-15a, 17-20

Brothers and sisters: The body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body; God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? But whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one Spirit with him. Avoid immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the immoral person sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.

Gospel Jn 1:35-42

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?” They said to him, “Rabbi” — which translated means Teacher —, “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come, and you will see.” So they went and saw where Jesus was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus. He first found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah” — which is translated Christ —. Then he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Cephas” — which is translated Peter.

Two small children sat together. One was asked by her little friend where she lived. “In a castle,” came the answer, “With four big towers and an enormous clang gate.” “Ooh yeah,” was the unbelieving response, for the friend knew that the reality was very different. Yet for a short time as she described her castle, that child really did live there, and for a moment, felt herself to be a princess. We can live on so many different levels in our imagination and our desires, as well as where we live physically.

John the Evangelist, as always, uses his factual account to make us aware of some of these levels. “Master,” said the disciples who came to him, “Where do you live?” And to their direct question they received an answer of such simplicity that it nags at the mind. “Come and See.”

The word live, abide, is used so often in John’s Gospel. “Abide in me as I abide in you” “. . . as I live in the Father.” Over and over again we re reminded that Jesus and the Father are one with the Holy Spirit, and will abide with, and in us who make up his body. The dwelling of Christ is also his indwelling, and as St. Paul says, “In him we live and move and have our being.” Our relationship with God then, is not simply an external, transitory experience. It is a unity which cannot be divided. We live in him, he lives in us.

Do we ever ask ourselves where else he lives? There are cardboard boxes under railway arches and in our inner city streets; in our parks, and in broken down sheds. “Master where do you live?” There are poor people in many countries of the world, mothers in tears carrying babies, holding them by the hand, cradled on their hips, wide eyed toddlers, their possessions a bundle on their backs. “Master, where do you live?”

There are bewildered men, women, teens, and small children, sitting on a hillside, their home in ruins behind them as the result of a disastrous tornado, flood, or earthquake. There are whole families, hungry and gaunt, wandering across the parched lands of their countryside, villages long since abandoned. And there are those who must spend their lives in institutions; in hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, refugee camps, sheltered homes, homeless folks wandering the streets looking for places of safety and a place to stay warm . . . and the list goes on. Perhaps we should change the question. “Master is this where you live?”

In our own country today amid a most terrible recession, there are folks without jobs, layoffs by the hundreds of thousands, people losing their homes because of foreclosures, frantically searching for the means to live and in many cases to survive; people frustrated because of the massive spending of a government gone out of control; Americans seeing a dismal future before them, and perhaps none at all for their grandchildren; people who have given up hope, given up on God, blaming God; politicians making promises that they cannot keep. “Master, where do you live?”

Does the suffering of these people and perhaps some of them are you, lead us and you to God? Does it turn us back, thankful to our own comfort and safety, there to abide? Or are we able, by our prayers and almsgiving and by a constant fight for justice, to bring some of God’s care and compassion back into the lives of those who suffer in these different situations?

There have been millions of unborn babies aborted, and in many cases, because of convenience, and I’m not talking about those mothers who had no other option as to give up their own life, and there will be more. If we were to put the question again, “Master, where do you live,?” would we hear the answer “In their suffering; in their hearts; in their pain; in their loneliness; in their despair; in your hearts, and the hearts of those so very depressed, abused, forgotten homeless folks, those facing dreadful illnesses, ignored, berated, gossiped about, and abandoned. “Master, where do you live?” And he will always answer, “Come and See.”

He doesn’t live in the likes of corruption and hate, selfishness and greed, money and control, fame and fortune; nor in the claws of evil. “Master, where do You live?” “Come and See.”

January 14^th, 2012

~ WE ARE ~

We are the hope that someone might need,
Leading them to the light that helps them to see.
We are the strength that can help them get up,
Reaching out with a helping hand that they need so much.
We are the ones who can help mold their dreams,
Showing them that with God nothings impossible it seems.
We are the voice that God uses each day,
To touch and encourage someone in every way.
We are the ones whose lives have been blessed,
Because of our Father we can share so much happiness.
We are the reason God sacrificed His only Son,
Letting others know that Jesus is the saving one.
We can say the prayers that so many need,
Grateful that our Father always answers and intercedes.
We all touch each others hearts in so many ways,
Sharing God’s love with someone who needs it today.

Written By Eva Dimel
Inspired By God
January 13th 2012

TOP