Listen / Encounter / Respond

2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle B

1 Sm 3:3B-10,19, Ps 40:2,4,7-8, 8-9, 10, 1 Cor 6:13C-15A, 17-20, Gospel: JN 1:35-42

Listen

Samuel was sleeping in the temple when the Lord called to him.  At first he was unfamiliar with the ways of God.

So he sought out help to understand how God was calling him in his life.  He asked Eli

Can you hear me?

Do We listen to God in our life - or are we asleep in the temple?  If we are, this year is the time for us to Wake up!

What are the factors in my life that prevent me from being able to hear the Lord?

• Am I too busy?
• Am I too tired?
• Am I too hooked on games / facebook / sports whatever?
• Is there some sin in my life that is making me deaf?

Am I overwhelmed by some tragedy?

First things first - God is calling each and every one of us.  If we aren’t hearing him, then the readings today are something that we should take home and meditate on so we can hear the Lord.

How do I know that I am listening to God?

First God is unique, distinct and undeniable. Gee Deacon Paul, I don’t happen to live in the temple at Shiloh, and I don’t really know Eli, to whom can I turn to know if I am hearing God?

• Scriptures - take on the task of reading one of the Gospels this year.
• The Catechism - Part 3 of the Catechism talks about the moral life - how we choose to live our life.  If God is calling us then he is calling us to action.  Clearly he won’t call us to an action that would oppose his own teaching.
• The Saints.  Pick up a book, watch a movie or listen to a talk on the lives of the Saints or on the conversion of any number of Christians this year.  Don’t know where to start?  Research your name saints, or your confirmation saint.

What I learned by pursuing God in this way is that God seeks to have a unique and individual relationship with each of us.  My relationship with God will be different than yours.  He gave the Stigmata to St. Francis, a broken leg to St. Ignatius, Tuberculosis to St. Bernadette, Visions to St. Bridgit, Orphans to St. John Bosco and the dying to Mother Teresa.  To each one of us the Lord acts in a different way - but he is calling each of us into a unique relationship.

There is a common path of relationship but different expressions. 

Listening leads to Encounter

In the Gospel today Andrew was listening to John the Baptist who said “Behold the Lamb of God”.  Andrew was listening and he responded.  He desired to encounter Christ who is the only one who can reconcile our relationship with God.  He and the other disciple followed Jesus and when Jesus noticed them he turned around and confronted them in an encounter - “What are you looking for?”

That is the question that Christ is asking us.  Are we willing to encounter him?

Do we make time in our lives to encounter Christ?

• On Retreats?
• On Mission?
• In Adoration?
• In the Poor?
• In the Sick?

When we finish our day do we reflect - where have I encountered Christ today.  

If we lead a life listening to God then we'll lead a life that is open to an encounter with God.  Encounters with God are transformative.

Look at how Andrew responded.  As soon as the day was over he had to go and share with his brother Peter - I have found the Messiah.

Mission to Juarez - An Example of Encounter

This reminds me of my first trip to Juarez to help out Father Peter’s Miguel Pro Mission.  I encountered Christ in the community I found there.  They were totally dependent on the providence of God, and I went radically open to the Holy Spirit.  It was a time of beauty and simplicity.  It was a time of liberation and freedom because it helped me to see that everything happens with God’s providence and that all my worrying and anxiousness does not really matter if I can simply encounter Christ and then follow him. 

Like Andrew, I came back from that journey and shared with my friends and my family of the encounter I had with the Lord on that trip.  It led me to be more open to the spirit and the promptings of God in my life.  Clearly there was nothing against God or His will in that encounter. 

I challenge you to think of the times in your life when you have encountered Christ.  These are precious times through which God gives us the strength for conversion in our lives.

Responding to God / Responding to the World

This leads us to the third dimension - how do I respond?

Corinth like the modern world

In the second reading St. Paul is writing to the Church in Corinth to address some of the difficulties that community was having in living out their Christian witness.  In many ways the culture of Corinth was similar to the culture of modern America.  Both cultures had a twisted view of freedom.

What is Freedom?  To do what I want

If you ask the average American teenager - What is Freedom?  They will respond - It is the right to do what I want!  This is a selfish view of freedom, because it places myself and my wants and needs at the center of my existence.  

We live in a culture very similar to that of the Corinthians.  In the culture of the day it was considered ok to murder your children if they had birth defects (Think Abortion).  Prostitution was accepted, and intercourse with many people was the norm (Think Promiscuity and Cohabitation).  Exercise and fitness were all the rage as Corinth was the home of the Isthmus Games, an Olympics of sorts.  Life in Corinth was all about what you could get out of it, it was a culture of despair and of death.

If we had to sum it up, the culture of Corinth was that of “Freedom is the right to do what I want with my body”

Doing what I want leads to slavery - doing what is good leads to freedom

The problem with this culture is that it does not offer us true freedom.  Freedom to do what I want won’t make me happy but it will enslave me to my passions.  I would be pursuing pleasure and not joy.  When I am addicted to a thing then I am not free.  

What then is the antidote?  A response to my encounter with Christ

To this St. Paul responds - “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?”  It does matter what we do in our bodies.  We do not have freedom to do what we want - but rather we want freedom to do what is good.  That is why Christ comes to us, that is why he frees us from sin so we can learn to choose the good and avoid the evil.  That is why we have Christian marriage - where the husband and wife can mirror the love of Christ to one another without limit - someone who chooses to love them in sickness and health, for better or worse - until death separates them.

Christ comes to dwell in this Temple today in this Liturgy.  He desires to be one with us, to share with us.  He is inviting each of us into a unique relationship of Love through which he seeks to transform us, and through us the world.

Christ invites each of us to a unique encounter

When we encounter Christ, our lives are transformed.  Our Body becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit.  The more we open up this temple to God the more he works through us.  Then our story becomes transformed - like St. Francis, St. Bridgit, St. Ignatius, St. Bernadette and Mother Teresa.

Are we listening?