Readings: 1 Sam 3:3-10,19; Ps 39:2,4,7-10; 1 Cor 6:13-15,17-20; Jn 1:35-42
Theme: COMING TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
Dearest friends, after the events of Christmas we now begin the Ordinary Time of the Year. The readings of today calls for three things: importance of proper direction; necessity of personal experience of Jesus; and the ability to lead others to Christ. These three points are joined together by what we call ‘Coming to the Knowledge of God/Christ”.
IMPORTANCE OF PROPER DIRECTION
In the first reading we see the ‘seminary’ days of Samuel in the Shiloh under the ‘formatorship’ of Eli. As the Scripture says, at this time, Samuel had not come to the knowledge of the Lord and the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. Yet, it was in this situation of ignorance of God and how his words sound that God came to Samuel calling him and anticipating his response. Innocently, Samuel knew only Eli as his master and the only one who dwells in the Shiloh. And so when God was calling him, he kept running to Eli, responding to him. Thanks to Eli’s knowledge of God and God’s way, and his good direction, Samuel was able to respond properly to God’s call. Reflecting on this, I was forced to ask “since God knew that Samuel has not had knowledge of him before and there was no way he would know that it was him (God) who was calling him (Samuel), and having seen the little boy’s confusion in running to Eli, why could God not simply add ‘Hey Samuel, I am God, I am the one calling you?” God wanted Samuel to come to the knowledge of him through Eli. Hence, this particular reading is not only God’s call of Samuel but God’s testing of Eli to see if he would direct the little boy properly.
In the gospel, John, seeing Jesus passing, did not waste time to direct the attention of his own disciples to Jesus. Although the two disciples were formerly John’s disciples, John knew that the one they were actually looking and waiting for was Jesus. So when he saw Jesus, he in fact ‘coerced’ them to leave him (John) and follow the Lamb of God. Dearest friends, our vocation is to give people proper direction of where God is. As the disciple said, ‘everybody is looking for Jesus’ (Mk 1:37) for insofar as everybody seeks after happiness and Jesus is the Supreme happiness, everybody seeks after Jesus. Let our actions and words aim always at giving people direction of where Jesus is, and to respond to him properly. Dear parents, we must be attentive to our children in order to be sure that they are listening to the correct voice of God and that they are responding properly to it. If Eli was not around and attentive, he would not have known the confusion of Samuel. Many of our youths are confused, running to different directions seeking for that happiness. They need many Elis and John the Baptist who would not only point the Lamb of God to them, show them the right way, but also give them the proper words and training as to respond properly to our general search for happiness.
NECESSITY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF GOD
Yes, we are called to give proper direction to people in their quest to see Jesus (Jn 12:20-]21), but how can we direct others if we ourselves do not know the way? How can we know how to respond to God if we ourselves have not even known how God’s call comes? How can we point Jesus to others if we cannot even recognize him ourselves in our different life situations? Hence, before we can direct people to God, there is need for personal experience of God. In the first reading, the word of God says that after the voice of God had called Samuel for the third time, and he ran to Eli, Eli understood that it was the Lord who was calling the boy. Eli was able to understand because he himself has had an experience of God. With his experience of God, he could understand what the little boy was going through and hence, he was able to direct him properly. In the gospel reading, after John introduced Jesus to his two disciples, they rose immediately and started following Jesus. John introduced Jesus to them as “the Lamb of God”, when Jesus asked them “what do you seek?”, they addressed Jesus as ‘Rabbi’, and then asked him “where are you staying?” Hence, the two disciples needed nothing more than to know where Jesus is staying. And the word of God says that they followed Jesus and stayed with him throughout the day. And after staying with Jesus, they recognized him, no more as Rabbi (a general term that can be used to address any serious person), not even as the Lamb of God as reported by John, but as the Messiah (the long-awaited Savior and Anointed of God). The two disciples were able to realize Jesus as the Messiah because they followed him and spent time with him, that is, they had a personal encounter of Jesus. Dearest friends, we can take John the Baptist to be theological books, homilies, other people’s testimony of who Jesus is, and/or even the Bible itself. These testimonies are wonderful and good to give us the prior knowledge of God and to point us to the direction of God. But unless we have our own personal experience of God, unless we discover where Jesus stays, and always spend hours with him, our knowledge of him will remain at the level of ‘they said he is…’ When Andrew was telling his brother Peter about Jesus, he did not say ‘we found someone John introduced as the Lamb of God’ rather with conviction, Andrew said to Peter ‘we have found the Messiah’. Andrew’s knowledge of Jesus and his conviction of who Jesus is developed in his personal encounter of Jesus, in his spending time with Jesus. How many hours do we spend daily in having deep meditations and organized personal prayers? We can know everything theology and theologians say about God and Jesus, we can even quote every verse in the Bible and all the names and the works of God as recorded in the Bible, but if we do not desire always to follow Jesus, to see where he lives in our hearts and in our daily activities, and to spend quality time with him, we cannot have our own experience of him.
LEADING OTHERS TO JESUS
After Andrew had stayed with Jesus, and his knowledge of God became personalized, he did not waste time to run to his brother Peter and share his experience with him. Dearest friends, God wants us to bring people to have an encounter with him through the sharing of our own experience of him. We should not block people from coming to Christ rather we should be generous in letting them know about God through our actions and words.
Our knowledge of God from other sources should inspire us to have a personal experience of him, and from our own experience we can convincingly tell people not “they said he is God” but that ‘we have found the Messiah”.
Fr. Nnamah Henry Chukwuezugo
Catholic Diocese of Aguleri