Listening to Know Him and Live Him

 

We are in the second Sunday of the Ordinary time. The readings are very relevant for the times we are living in. The main themes are; Listening, Staying, Living Holy and Bringing others. We shall unfold each of them exegetically.  

Listening

In the first reading we have God calling Samuel. At that time Samuel was very small boy, did not even know God and the things alike (1Sam 3:7). For him Eli was everything, that’s why when he heard a voice of his name he went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Though Samuel could not recognize God, still his attentiveness to the voice led him to his master Eli, who guides him to respond to God. In the Gospel (Jn 1:35-42) also John the Baptist shows to his disciples the ‘Lamb of God.’ The disciples attentive listening to their master John led them to follow Jesus and discover in Him the messiah.

Staying

The disciples followed Jesus to know about Him. One of the best ways to know a person is by staying with that person. We can create a friendship with a person by meeting him/her occasionally and encountering him/her frequently. But that will not make us to comprehend the mystery of the person fully. Only the husband knows best the wife and vice versa, because they are staying together in all moments. Thus, the disciples opened themselves to have broader and intimate relationship with Jesus by asking the place of His stay.

Living Holy

In the second reading (1 Cor 6:13-15, 17-20) St. Paul is condemning the immoral practices that are creeping among the believers. He is stressing that salvation is not achieved by dying but being raised by God bodily. Therefore, our body should be holy. Every sin creates a rupture in the creation. But bodily sin creates rupture within the person itself. This pandemic has affected us because we have body. We took lot of measures to preserve our body from contracting the virus. But have we ever realized that our bodies should be maintained in a proper manner? There are people who use their own bodies as objects. We have bodies to encounter the other as humans/subjects and use the objects. Making ones’ own body as objects shuns the individual from encountering the other as human. For him/her everything becomes objects. It leads a person to lose the concept of holiness and sanctity. To be human is to take care of one’s own body and protect it from objectification. To be human is to live our bodily existence pertaining to our nature. To be human is living holy bodily.

Bringing Others

     The purpose of the Gospel is to proclaim to everyone about the history of salvation. John the Baptist did this by introducing the messiah to his disciples. The disciples in their turn especially Andrew went to his brother peter and spoke to him about the messiah with whom he stayed. He brought peter to Jesus. The Gospel captivates the person to captivate the other through him/her. This captivating spirals and extends. We can bring others to Jesus through our words and deeds.  To do that first, we should have stayed with Jesus. Knowing Jesus intimately would lead us to live his commandments, to live like Him-live Him.

We are living in the world of darkness. There are lots of things happening around us to distract and de-track us from knowing God. To be guarded from all these we need to be attentive to the calling of God. Amidst our sufferings and disappointments God would come to us in a surprising way. We need to recognize his coming by ourselves or like Samuel and the disciples we need to be guided by someone to recognize Him. This attentiveness would urge us to stay with him, to know him. Once this happens our entire life would change, the holiness begins to overshadow us, showing others the way to God.

Let the readings of today give us a hope that God continue to be present in our lives amidst intolerable suffering and unjust pain. Let our attentive listening to His voice amidst the jarring noise lead us to know Him (stay with Him) and live Him (being Holy and bringing others to Him).