2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
(Sunday 14th January 2018)
Let God build you up, speak to your heart and teach you – (John 1:35-42)
The two disciples of St. John the Baptist follow the same progression many of us can see in our own stories of coming to faith.
They began by ‘hearing about’ Jesus and then they made that important step of ‘listening to’ Jesus themselves. Both are necessary. Before we can walk we must learn to crawl. Before we listen to the Word of God Himself we have to hear about Him. This is what St. Paul means when he asks “How are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?” (Rom. 10:14)
But faith does not end with a mental acknowledgement that what we’ve heard about is true. Faith is the response of acceptance and adherence to God’s voice who addresses us personally. In the Gospel today Jesus invites the two men to “Come and see,” and to spend a few hours in His company. There they listened to the Incarnate Son of God and responded with faith. Note they didn’t just make a mental leap- their lives changed profoundly because they listened and responded in faith. They left John and became followers of Jesus. They sat and listened. Then they committed. There are two actions we have to fight against our upbringing to bring about: listening and committing. Many of us haven’t developed the discipline and strength of will needed for them, but we need to if we’re going to see God’s plan unfold in us.
If that transition from ‘hearing about’ to ‘listening to’ and ‘committing’ happened quite quickly, the next happened almost instantaneously. These two disciples became almost instant apostles, going to their family members and friends and telling them what they’d heard and who they had met. This is a challenging leap for many to make. We can be anxious and hold back sharing what we’ve received until some distant time in the future when we imagine we’ll be totally confident in our presentation, when we’ll have all the answers to the tricky questions, when people will stand in open-mouthed admiration of our combined intelligence and holiness. Let me burst that bubble right now: that day will never come. There will always be people that will write you off and what you’ve heard. There were people who wrote off the two disciples in today’s Gospel. There were people who wrote off Jesus.
We can’t let fear of what others think interrupt the plan of God for us. This is the progression which is found in all seeking the will of God: ‘Hearing about’- ‘listening to’- ‘committing in faith’- ‘sharing with others’.
Don’t let a lack of discipline in sitting in His presence stop you, nor the indecision fostered by our culture of endless options, nor a fear of what others may think. Sit again and reacquaint yourself with the voice of God who does address you personally. Let Him build you up, speak to your heart and teach you; then reaffirm your commitment to Him and share what He’s doing for you in a normal way with the people around you.