As usual the homily can be heard here.
John
the Baptist must've been some sight.
His hair had never been cut.
Given his diet of locusts and wild honey he was stick thin and he wore
camel skins. John must have looked
something like an undernourished caveman, someone primitive and barbaric. Yet people listened to him because he
listened to God.
According
to tradition John ministered in Bethabara, over the Jordan river from Judea, in
Southern Israel. Andrew and most
of the Apostles came from Galilee, which is in the North of Israel. That's about 90 miles or 145 km away or
the distance between here and New Ross, Co. Wexford and the journey was done on
foot. Our Lord, Andrew and the
other disciple are far from home.
To have travelled so far they have been searching for something.
Andrew
and his friend, who is probably John the author of this Gospel himself, are so
serious in their searching that they have become followers, disciples of John
the Baptist. The Baptist does no
fit in any category the Jews recognise.
Though he is a priest of the Temple he does not go there and he is not a
member of any faction or school.
He lives in the wilderness on the most basic of food. He baptises not in stagnant stone vats
of water but in the living water of the river Jordan. He calls for repentance and conversion. He is not like any of the other groups
in Israel and people flock to him.
Yet
this extraordinary man points beyond himself to Christ. Just before this passage John tells us
that the Baptist had seen Jesus before when Jesus had come to him to receive
baptism. By this act of humility
our Lord sanctified the waters of the world and made our baptism possible. The Baptist himself gave testimony that
he had seen the Holy Spirit descend on our Lord from Heaven and remain upon
Jesus. Seeing Jesus again the next
day he points to him and says “Behold, the Lamb of God.” We are so used to such words that we
can easily miss their meaning.
Most of the sacrifices in the Temple were of lambs, male lambs without
blemish. So many lambs were
sacrificed that one wonders if the smoke of incense could cover the stench of
blood and burning flesh. Most of
these sacrifices were sin offerings as well as those offered in thanksgiving or
to redeem a firstborn.
So
when John the Baptist says that Jesus is the Lamb of God he is saying that
Jesus is the one to make and be the sacrifice that will make all other sacrifices
superfluous. He is the One who
takes away the sins of the world not just yesterday nor in the future but now
and always. He it is who absolves
us of our sins, taking them away and restoring us to holiness through the
ministry of the priest in the Sacrament of Confession.
The
disciples hear and they understand.
John the Baptist is pointing them in a new direction. He humbly seeks to grow less not more
and he points his friends to the next step on their journey. They go after the Lord and he turns to
them with the simple question “What are you looking for?” There's an important question. How often do we seek after so much that
is not important, that we cannot take with us, that promises a happiness that
cannot be delivered? How often do
we neglect the one thing necessary?
Their
answer is curious: "Teacher, where do you live?" It means more than it seems to. Our Lord is far from hometown of Nazareth. They are not asking for his address but
for welcome and hospitality from Him, for communion with Him. His response is "come and
see." Some scholars claim
that in John's gospel the verbs for seeing and contemplating are connected,
that in John there is no simple act of seeing. John the Baptist has seen our Lord, has contemplated Him,
recognised Him and sent these disciples to Him for Christ can deliver what the
Baptist can only hope and pray for.
So
these disciples go with our Lord but what they heard and saw they did not
record. Yet their actions are a
kind of testimony. Andrew travels
the 90 miles to Galilee to find his brother Simon and tell him he has found the
Messiah, that is, Christ. Simon is
impressed enough to travel to meet Jesus and finds himself renamed as Cephas or
Peter, that is, 'rock'. By
meeting our Lord he has met his true self.
John
the Evangelist recorded this encounter because he saw that this was not just
for him and Andrew but for all of us.
We are all asked by the Lord “What are you looking for?” To those of us who choose to answer, to
engage with Him in prayer, He offers us the invitation "come and
see."
Our Lord is
present to us on the Altar and in Holy Communion at every Mass. He remains with us in the Tabernacle
where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved.
He is always available to us in our hearts. He awaits our seeking Him
and our attentive listening. He
wants to reveal to us our secret name and our true self. We, each and every one
of us, are invited to the heights of holiness, to the heights of encounter with
the Lord. We are invited to enter
the wilderness of self-denial and find the burning bush of God's Presence
within us, His dwelling place in our souls, and there discover His loving
care.
If
we sincerely seek Him in prayer we will find Him and He will turn every wilderness
in our lives into paradise. He has
given us the invitation. It is up
to us to follow and to find.
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