"What are you looking for?" These are the first words of Jesus in John's Gospel.

What are you looking for?  Who are you  looking for?  These are the first spoken by Jesus in John’s Gospel.  This is such an important life question.  It gives a focus to the priorities of our life.

The disciples respond:  “Rabbi,  where are you staying?”

Jesus answers:  “Come and See.”

Jesus is inviting the first disciples to follow him, to Come and See, to join the company of the first disciples, to be in relationship with Him.

As we pray over this invitation of Jesus to the first disciples, we also know at the core of our being this invitation is given to us as well.  We need to wrestle with the question:  “What are we looking for in life?”  The best way to answer that question is to accept the invitation to Come and See.

Come and See what life will be like when lived in relationship with Jesus and in relationship with the all the disciples of Jesus.  Come and See if the Gospel stories connect with your spirit and your way of looking at life.  Come and See if your relationships in the Church – the disciples of Jesus – allow you to love and be loved in life-giving ways.  Come and See if your participation in the Church leads you to come to know Jesus more deeply in your life.  

The words of Jesus are not intended harshly as:  “Shape up or you are going to hell.”  Or “You are expected to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders and never smile again.”  Or “No, no, no, this is wrong and you will be big trouble if you get involved.”

Rather the words of Jesus to “Come and See” mean come and experience yourself as a person loved by the Lord.  In the words of Pope Francis, my life is deepened when I experience the Joy of the Gospel.  As your pastor, my hope is that we love and serve and enjoy each other’s friendship in our parish community.  Life is much too short to be bogged down by negativity and judgments we can make about one another.

The Scripture reading invite us to reflect on the call of God in our lives.  The Gospel is the dialogue of Jesus with his first disciples.  The call is given in the invitation to Come and See.  In the first Scripture reading, the prophet Samuel was having trouble recognizing God’s call in His life.  At first Samuel thought that it was his mentor Eli who was calling him.  But then through the sage wisdom of Eli, Samuel was able to recognize God’s call and responded:  “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”  The wisdom of Eli to Samuel was to listen.  And so, listening became Samuel’s way of life in prayer.

In your prayer today,  I commend to you the prayerfulness of the prophet Samuel:  “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.  Part of the beauty of Eucharistic Adoration is the prayer of quiet in the presence of the Lord.  We simply listen to the voice of God in our lives.  God is present to us.  May we prayerfully listen to the voice of God both in the joys and in the struggles and difficulties of life.

Like Samuel, we often are confused and have trouble what the call of God in life is for us.  We need to be patient as was Samuel.

What is the connection between the call of God in today’s Scriptures and our own spirituality?  We are called by God to be disciples.  We are called by God to be stewards.  We are called by God to build the Body of Christ in our parish.

Our parish participation is not a call from the pastor Father Jim.  It is not a call from the parish council.  It is a call from Jesus.  We are called not just to be pious individual Catholics.  We are to be a parish community invested in each other as the Body of Christ.

COME AND SEE.  Jesus invites us to be in relationship with him.  Jesus invites to experience our ourselves as God's beloved.  Jesus invites to connect our story with the Gospel story.  Jesus invites us to love and be loved in the community of the baptized.