Come and you will see...

 

2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

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

How did the World’s tallest Japanese Deacon end up at St. Michael’s?   I bet this morning, when you were driving over here to Mass, you were wondering “How did the world’s tallest Japanese Deacon end up at St. Michaels?”  Ok, probably not - but just in case you are wondering how that happened, all I can say is that the Lord works in mysterious ways…

Oh, that is me!

In case you are wondering who is the World’s tallest Japanese Deacon, it’s me.  I am Deacon Paul Zajac, and I was born in Sasebo, Japan - a town just outside of Nagasaki.  I am a single Dad with 5 kids, 4 boys and 1 girl who range in age from 18 to 30.  As a child I grew up all over the world, Japan, Nebraska, Maryland and England.  As a young adult I lived in California, Tennessee, Michigan, Florida and finally I moved to Colorado where there are awesome mountains, lots of Sun and no Humidity.  I was hooked.

Speak Lord, your Servant is Listening

The next question that might have crossed your mind is “How did you come to be a Deacon?  How did you come to know the Lord?”

TEC - Waking up in a state of prayer and praise.

When I was 22 or 23 years old I was fresh out of the Navy and had moved to Colorado and I attended a Teens Encounter Christ retreat.  This was a 3-day retreat that focused on living out the mystery of Easter - Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Pentecost.  On the third day of that retreat I remember waking up in a state of prayer - praising God.  It was mind-blowing.  I remember driving home from the retreat and it was like being in a different country.  Encountering the Lord just changes you, fundamentally.  

Samuel - Hearing God in his Sleep

We see this with Samuel in the first reading today.  He is not yet familiar with God, and as he is sleeping the Lord calls to him - “Samuel, Samuel”... Of course, Samuel is confused and goes to Eli and asks him what he needs.  Eli sends him back to bed.  This happens 2 more times before Eli figures out that it is God who is calling to Samuel - and so he responds - “The next time God calls you, respond - Speak Lord, your servant is listening”...

How do we listen to God?

So - you might be thinking - I have never heard the Lord speak to me in such a direct way.  How do I get to know the Lord?  And, if I hear the Lord, how do I know that it is God speaking to me and not my own imagination?   Those are great questions, and we should all strive to encounter God more fully in our lives. 

Peace Huts - Learning to listen in silence

After encountering Christ on the retreat I met up with a good friend of mine who had been a missionary in Kenya.  She came back from Kenya with a desire to bring the Kenyan openness to the Holy Spirit back to Colorado.  To do this she was planning on creating a retreat center out near Akron, Colorado.  That’s right - in the middle of no-where.  You might wonder - why build a retreat center in the middle of the prairie?  It is windy, and visually quiet.  I think that the Holy Spirit inspired my friend to start there because God needs us to learn to listen to Him, and in a place that is visually and physically quiet you are confronted with the silence, and that helps us to begin to listen to God.

I think that until we become comfortable with the silence, with being alone with God it is difficult to listen to Him.  At first we want to occupy ourselves with something to do - or we talk to ourselves - but what God seeks in an encounter with us - simple, quiet, still, at peace.  It was in being a volunteer at a retreat center that I learned to start listening to God, and opened myself up to being formed by him.

Encountering God - Unique, Distinct, Undeniable, Holy

All I can say from my experience is that when we are able to settle down our lives, our souls and truly listen for the Lord He will come to us, and when He does we recognize Him - because He is other, distinct, unique, undeniable and Holy.  It is an awesome experience. 

Andrew and Philip - “Behold the Lamb of God”

I am sure we are going to get to know one another over the time we have here together.  Our journey to a deeper relationship with Christ begins with a desire to know God - a desire to be in relationship with God.  This is what led Andrew and Philip to follow John the Baptist because they heard his preaching and were drawn into learning from John how to be Holy.  Andrew and Philip encounter Christ almost in passing - they are with John when Jesus walks by and they hear John say “Behold the Lamb of God”...  Whenever I read this scripture I love to play this scene back in my own imagination - in my mind John says this under his breath, and Andrew and Philip hear it - almost as if they observed John praying in secret - and so they are drawn into the mystery of Christ - so they start following Him.

“What are you looking for?” - Reflect on this act Communion

Jesus figures out that He is being followed and so He turns around and asks them - “What are you looking for?”  

• Approval?      [PAUSE]

• Peace?         [PAUSE]

• Security?      [PAUSE]

• Understanding? [PAUSE]

• Love?          [PAUSE]

• Acceptance?    [PAUSE]

• Healing?       [PAUSE]

• Purpose?       [PAUSE]

• To be right with God? [PAUSE]

What word popped into your mind when I asked the question.  Make note of it and after you receive Holy Communion let that be the heart of your prayer to the Lord.  Lord, you know I desire - righteousness, healing, an experience of your love - whatever the answer is - place that petition before God this week.  

Where are you staying? = How can we enter the mystery

Andrew and Phillip respond with “Master, where are you staying?”  It is their way of saying - we want to see how you live so we can learn more about God from you.  We want to see the fullness of your life so we can be immersed in your relationship with God the Father.

Come and you will see - Encountering the Messiah

And with that Jesus invites them into the mystery of the life of God - he says “Come and you will see”...  It is clear that day was transformational for both Andrew and Phillip - like my first retreat, or when I came to know Christ in retreat ministry.  We know this because at the end of that day Andrew tells his brother Peter, and Phillip his friend Nathaniel “We have found the Messiah”.  Their lives are forever changed because they are willing to accept Christ’s invitation to be with Him.

Sharing in the Mission of Christ

When talking to the Corinthians St. Paul reminds us of what we share in this invitation of Christ.  He says…

“Brothers and sisters:  The body is not for immorality, but for the Lord,  and the Lord is for the body;... Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?”

Invited to be a physical member of Christ

Christ invites us to be members of His Body this week - that means we are called to be the ones through which others will encounter the Love of God.  This is the mission of the Church - to provide those in the world who do not know Christ the opportunity to encounter God’s love through us.  

Being intentional about your Christianity

It is not by accident that you are here at St. Michaels this morning - you are here because God has called you to be here.  He did this in your baptism.  In Baptism God chooses to place dwell in our souls - that is why St. Paul reminds us that our bodies are not our own - but that we belong to Christ - Why?  So that others can encounter Christ when they encounter us.  

Make Time for some extra prayer this week

The second way that we encounter the Word of God this week is to take our prayer and then act upon it.  Whatever our prayer is today and Communion - what we are looking for is the way that we are called to be a witness of Christ’s love to others.  In this way we become intentional about our Christianity.  I want to invite you to spend some time in prayerful listening this week.  That is the heart of the prayer of Samuel, the Psalm, Andrew and Philip - “Speak Lord, your servant is listening”.  One way we can live this out is to make some space for Listening to Christ this week.  Give up some Netflix or social media and instead sit in the silence and pray.  See if you can find 5-7 minutes, either prior to going to bed or when you get up in the morning and pray with either.  

Scripture to meditate on

• “Speak Lord, your Servant is Listening” 

• Or the Response from the Psalm - “Here am I Lord, I come to do your will”.

and unite it to your answer to Christ’s question in prayer - “What are you looking for?”

 

Pray about the day to come

And then either reflect over your day to come - who is it that you know that needs an encounter with the Love of Christ this day?  Your spouse?  Your children?  A Co-worker?  Someone you see on the street or in the store?  How is it that the Lord is calling you to be their encounter with Him?

Pray about the day just lived

Or if it is at the end of the day - then reflect over the day past - Where / who did you encounter who needed to know Christ?  How did you respond?  How was Christ inviting you to respond?  Give thanks for the times when you encountered Christ in others, and for the times when Christ encountered others through your actions.

This is how we begin to become familiar with the ways of the Lord.  This is how we let our lives enter more deeply into a relationship with Christ.

Come and you will see…

A Journey of Trust

 

Epiphany

Is 60:1-6, Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13., Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6, Gospel: MT 2:1-12

Lesson of Christmas - God Loves you!

When the 3 wise men came to find Christ, they did not know where to look.  They went to where they thought he would be but discovered him where they did not expect to find him.  They finally encounter him in Bethlehem, not at the hospital, or an inn, or the house of a relative, but in a stable, a manger, a cave.  The wise men discover Christ has come with a heart of humility.  They discover that God is willing to enter into our mess so that he can love us.  He wants to show us that there is no place in our existence that God does desire want to be.

Welcome Christ with Trust this Christmas

How Mary Trusted God

Do we Trust God?  Are we willing to subordinate our will to His?  Do we trust that His will is being worked out here today?  When Christ chose to be born, He trusted that Mary and Joseph in their freedom would accept Him, parent Him, form Him.  When Mary accepted Christ - she trusted Him with her life, her plans, her desires, her joys.  She trusted that God was using her in His plan in a way that brings about the salvation of us all.

How St. Joseph Trusted God

When St. Joseph trusted God, and trusted Mary, he put his faith in God and accepted the mission for which He was chosen.  That meant moving his family at least 3 times - from Nazareth to Bethlehem, from Bethlehem to Egypt and from Egypt back to Nazareth.  This is in a time before cars, planes and the comforts of modern life.  It meant moving your shop and finding a new place to establish yourself. 

How do I trust God?  How do you trust God?  

In my very first year of formation as a Deacon - they told me that a group of eight people whom I didn't even know would meet with me once, and then make a recommendation to Archbishop Chaput if I should continue on in formation or not. We heard about this on our very first day of class, and the meeting with the vocations committee would not take place until late the following spring.  For 8 months I struggled with Trust in God.  Do I trust in God’s providence for me, for the Church, for the World?  Do I trust in God’s ability to bring good out of evil and to lead us to our eternal salvation.

Does God Love Me?  Do I Love God?  Where is the proof?

The challenging part of this question is that it is bound up in other questions - Does God love me?  Do I love God?  If God loves me then why did X, Y or Z happen to me?  

What we need to understand is that God is different from us, and that He chooses to love us in His own way, and not as we would love ourselves.  

At the end of the day we are confronted with the question - “Do I Trust that what God is doing in my life is an act of love - that will bring me closer to Him in holiness?”  Oftentimes that question cannot be answered in a short time span, but requires years for us to realize the trajectory we are on.  

The day of the Meeting

After much time of worry, anxiety, and struggle the fateful day arrived when I was to meet with the committee that would decide my fate - either recommend me to Holy Orders, or not.  I entered the room and met the men and women that Archbishop Chaput had selected; a priest, a deacon and 6 laypeople were there to interview me.  I knew none of them - they were all strangers.  None of them knew my story, my history, my journey, my discernment.  

Prayer and the presence of the Holy Spirit

Then they asked me if I would open our meeting with prayer, so I bowed my head and began to pray.  It was at that moment that I felt the Holy Spirit rushing upon me as it must have done for the Apostles and Disciples at Pentecost, and God’s love simply flowed into that room as we prayed together.  Christ sent his love to comfort me, to console me, to give me what to say - and I was no longer worried, or concerned about if I would be a Deacon or not because I knew that God had brought us to that moment to encounter Him.

Trust requires Humility and Docility

During Formation one of the points that they emphasized was a docility towards the Holy Spirit, and a Humility - a recognition that I don’t know what is best for me.  Docility - is an openness to accept that God works in our lives in ways that we don’t perceive.  That means that when we work with one another we recognize that things won’t always go the way we want them to go. 

Trust leads to Faith

Knowing that progress in our Journey towards Christ is measured over long time spans means that we need to reflect from time to time to determine - am I walking with the Lord in a way that leads us to Holiness.  As we reflect we can begin to see if that is true or not.

When we Trust that Christ is with us, and then we experience that He is truly with us - not as we want Him to be, but as He truly is, in His own way our relationship with God changes, it grows and we are transformed, and changed by that encounter.  In that way we as His disciples grow more and more to imitate Him.

Do we have the confidence that the wise men had to set out on a journey to encounter Christ?

The wisemen from the east had to in some way struggle with these questions - The King of Heaven is being born.  Do we trust God that he would invite us, pagans into His story?  That he would use us, pagans to proclaim his goodness, his mercy and his love?

When they get to Jerusalem, where this King should be, and not find them - did they Trust God - He is not here where we expected, and in the way we expected.  Do we trust Herod, and the scribes of the Law?

It is interesting to note that the star that appears at the birth of Christ is not visible from Jerusalem, yet when they move forward again from Jerusalem the star re-appears and leads them on to Bethlehem where they encounter the Messiah, and offer him their gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

When we Encounter Christ - we are converted and our paths change.

When the wise men encountered the Lord, their lives were altered.  They worshiped him, gave him gifts and then returned to their homes by a different path - avoiding Herod.  Having known Christ, the Messiah their world view is different and upon returning home they began to prepare the way for the Church in their own homes.

Where do we encounter Christ?  In the Scriptures, In the Eucharist and in one another.

In that same way, when we encounter Christ He changes the trajectories of our lives.  As I reflect on my time here at St. Anthony’s I see that I have encountered Christ in my ministry here in many ways.  

• I have encountered the diversity of the Church, a glimpse of heaven with enthusiasm - in how we worship God.

• I have encountered piety - in visiting the sick, aged and dying.

• I have encountered honesty - in sinners confronting their own weaknesses.

• I have encountered devotion - in the many different communities of this parish that strive to serve God.

The Last Altar Server Class

This past Tuesday I taught my last Altar Server Class.  Afterwards I had a moment of heartfelt prayer before the tabernacle.  My heart was filled with both sadness and gratitude.  Sadness because I am leaving you. [PAUSE] Gratitude for the relationships we have had over the years.  Gratitude for the ways that I have been able to witness the presence of Christ working among you.

Archbishop Chaput…

I was ordained a Deacon by Archbishop Chaput.  In his final Mass at the Cathedral, he shared the following farewell address which I think is fitting for today’s occasion.

“Next month I will be offering the mass … for a new people - but how can I forget you?  So I promise you I am going to remember you in my prayers.  I ask you to remember me.  

And then when we meet again, I am sure I will meet some of you before this, but when we meet again, at the end of time, before the judgment seat of God, we will be able to claim one another as partners in God's great merciful act of salvation.”  

What God has begun in us, we ask Him to bring to completion."