Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, year of Mark, John the Apostle tells us this story of vocation: “John (the Baptist) 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” (John 1:35-39).
Normally people have the same desire to become better and better - to transcend themselves. It is because “man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for” (CCC. 27). As people want to fulfill their life with a meaning they find out that God alone is the eternal good, from him and to him they have a full life. The psalmist today says, “I delight to do your will, my God; your law is in my inner being!” (Psalm 40:9). For us Christians, Christ Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, through whom we will go to God the Father (cf. John 14:6).
If the two disciples of John the Baptist (Andrew and John, son of Zebedee), as they had met and followed Jesus, were invited to come and discern the place where the Lord stayed; today also we are invited to “come” and discern Christ in our heart through faith (cf. Ephesians 3:17). The question is, how can we “come” to the Lord once He is already in our heart? The invitation “come” implies the expectation of getting closer – the action that expresses proximity of relationship. Here the Buddhist meditation technique “Vipassana” (insight) could be of some help: Being uninterruptedly mindful! Not by walking round to find things outside but by watching into ourselves we can come closer to God, who is always in our heart and even obviously so when we love and obey the teaching of Jesus (cf. John 14:23).
Living in a media manipulated society like nowadays, let us fall not into the trap of things that attract us on the outside but distract us from listening inside to God’s call. May we be always simple and faithful like Samuel, not permitting any word that God plants into our heart to be without effect (cf. 1 Samuel 3:19). May we be always careful of using our body, which is “a temple of the Holy Spirit,” not for immorality, but for the immortality – the Lord (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20). May we be constantly mindful of the actual presence of God in our heart so that all the time we should act in accordance to His law. Like our beloved Brother Lionel, whose 90th day returning home to the Father we commemorate today, often said when he was alive, using the words of St. Catherine of Siena, “All the way to heaven is heaven, because He said I am the Way;” let us be mindful that our Lord Jesus Christ daily invites us to live with him now in heavens. Amen.
Peter Thoại O.P.