HOMILY SUNDAY 02 – Year B
The Dynamics of Discipleship and Friendship
(1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19; Psalm 40; 1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20; John 1:35-42)
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Four mothers were talking about their ordained sons. One proudly said her son was a bishop and everyone addressed him as “Your Excellency.” Another stated that her son was an archbishop, and everyone addressed him as “Your Grace.” A third said that her son was a cardinal, and everyone addressed him as “Your Eminence.” The fourth, not to be outdone, said that her son was only a priest, but that he weighed 350 pounds and when he came into the room, everyone exclaimed, “Oh my God!”
The titles that Jesus applied to his followers were “disciple” and “friend”. The liturgy today reveals the dynamics of discipleship, and invites us to live as friends of Jesus in an intimate relationship with him that involves especially listening.
The stage is set in the first reading with the call of Samuel. We know that as a child, his mother Hannah dedicated him to the Lord and left him in the care of the Temple priests. God responds by calling him even before he “knew the Lord.” We can learn here that God is calling us, at whatever stage of life we are at, to come into a closer relationship with him. The fact that Samuel was called three times suggests that this call may come to us repeatedly, until we are ready to hear it and respond. And that means that our stance must be that of one who listens, as the temple priest Eli advised Samuel to say, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.” A disciple is first of all one who listens attentively to the Word of God.
As the Word Among Us states, learning how to listen to the voice of the Lord is key to spiritual growth and discipleship. St. Francis of Assisi heard the Lord tell him “Rebuild the Church” and once he understood what that meant, was faithful to that command. Mother Theresa of Calcutta heard God ask her to leave her order to care for the poorest of the poor in India. But these saints could hear these “big” life-changing messages because they were faithful to the quieter messages that Jesus put into their hearts. That is how it can happen for us – responding to these small promptings will draw us closer to the Lord and help us to hear him in the bigger areas of our lives.
The Holy Spirit never tires of telling us that Jesus has redeemed us, that we are beloved sons and daughter of God, and that he is offering us new life. The Holy Spirit never tires of nudging us toward more virtuous behaviour so that we can become more like Christ. That is a message that Pope Francis repeats often – Jesus never tires of showing us mercy and forgiveness.
Within this background of listening, we see discipleship then as a personal encounter with Jesus. His identity is firmly established in the gospel account – Lamb of God, rabbi and Messiah. The Israelites would have been very conscious of the role of the Passover Lamb in their religious tradition, whose blood was shed to save them from the angel of death, and whose flesh they ate in a hasty shepherd’s meal that led to their liberation from oppression in Egypt. They also knew of the lamb that served as a scapegoat, loaded down with their sins and driven out to die into the desert as a sacrificial offering for them. For John to proclaim, “Look, there is the Lamb of God” would have alerted the disciples to the fact that Jesus was the true Lamb of God who would deliver Israel from its sins.
That Andrew could tell Peter that they had found the Messiah is an astonishing act of faith, right at the beginning of their relationship with the Lord. Their first encounter with Jesus, and the conversation that ensues, is so telling. “What are you looking for?” is a question that Jesus asks of every human being, as all of us experience the incompleteness that is part and parcel of the human experience, and all of us are looking for something or someone to bring wholeness and completion to the “unfinished symphonies” of our lives, as the theologian Karl Rahner puts it.
Their question, “Where do you live?” and Jesus’ response, “Come and see” are relational questions. The fact that the disciples stayed with Jesus for the rest of the day reveals what Jesus desires most in his followers and disciples – an intimate relationship with us, a sharing of his life, who he is and what he has come to do here on earth. It is a call to friendship with him, as he would state much later in the same gospel: “I call you friends, not servants, because I have made know to you everything that I have learned from my Father.”
Thomas Moore in Soulmates writes, “Friends live in each other’s hearts. To the soul, there is hardly anything more healing than friendship. Friendship is the container of the soul.” Friendship reflects God as interpersonal relationship and intimacy for John. We are thus invited to be disciples of Jesus who enter into an intimate relationship with him especially by listening to him in prayer and silence.
St. Paul in the second reading to the Corinthians emphasizes the behavioural change that must accompany the life of a disciple of Jesus. We know the identity of Jesus as Lamb of God, Rabbi and Messiah. From Paul we learn that we are members of the Body of Christ, temples of his Spirit, and that we are now to glorify God with our bodies that are meant for the Lord and not for any illicit sexual activity. The disciple and friend of Jesus must give him or herself completely to the Lord, and make Jesus the centre of his or her life.
Someone who did this in a remarkable fashion was the late Fr. Fernand Jetté, former Superior General of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. A very quiet man, he was very spiritual and very profound. His letters to the congregation always had one clear focus – that the Oblate missionary first and foremost had to know Jesus Christ on an intimate and personal level, if he was to be an effective missionary and bring others to Jesus. He both chastised and encouraged the Oblates in this regard, and his letters are a cherished part of the history of the Oblates.
The Eucharist that we celebrate now as disciples of Jesus is an intimate meal with the Lamb of God and the Messiah who first of all is our friend. We listen attentively to the Word of the Lord, and respond to that Word by receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus, as members of his Body and Temples of the Holy Spirit.
We are then sent out to reveal to the world the depth of God’s love for us revealed in Jesus Christ, as did Francis of Assisi, Mother Theresa and Fr. Jetté, by our love for one another and for the world.
