Hearing the Call
In the call of Samuel and the first Apostles, this Sunday’s Readings shed light on our own calling to be followers of Christ.
Notice in the Gospel that John’s disciples are prepared to hear God’s call. They are already looking for the Messiah, so they trust in John’s word and follow when he points out the Lamb of God walking by.
Samuel is also waiting on the Lord—sleeping near the Ark of the Covenant where God’s glory dwells, taking instruction from Eli, the high priest.
Samuel listened to God’s word and the Lord was with him. And Samuel, through his word, turned all Israel to the Lord (see 1 Samuel 3:21; 7:2-3). The disciples too, heard and followed—words we hear repeatedly in Sunday’s Gospel. They stayed with the Lord and by their testimony brought others to the Lord.
These scenes from salvation history should give us strength to embrace God’s will and to follow His call in our lives.
God is constantly calling to each of us—personally, by name (see Isaiah 43:1; John 10:3). He wants us to seek Him in love, to long for His word (see Wisdom 6:11-12). We must desire always, as the apostles did, to stay where the Lord stays, to constantly seek His face (see Psalm 42:2).
For we are not our own, but belong to the Lord, as Paul says in Sunday’s Epistle.
We must have ears open to obedience, and write His word within our hearts. We must trust in the Lord’s promise—that if we come to Him in faith, He will abide with us (see John 15:14; 14:21-23), and raise us by His power. And we must reflect in our lives the love He has shown us, so that others too may find the Messiah.
As we renew our vows of discipleship in this Eucharist, let us approach the altar singing the new song of Sunday’s Psalm: “Behold I come . . . to do your will O God.”
St. Augustine
Sermons on St. John’s Gospel, 7
“John was there with two of his disciples”. John was such a «friend of the Bridegroom» (Jn 3,29) that he did not seek his own glory; he merely gave testimony to the truth. Did he dream of restraining his disciples and preventing them from following the Lord? Not at all. He himself shows them whom to follow… He declares to them: “Why cling to me? I am not the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God… Behold him who takes away the sin of the world.”
At these words, the two disciples who were with John followed Jesus. “Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, ‘What are you looking for?’ They said to him: ‘Rabbi, where are you staying?'” At this point they were not definitively following him. As we know, they attached themselves to him when he called them to leave their boat…, when he said to them: “Come after me and I will make you fishers of men” (Mt 4,19).
That was the moment when they attached themselves to him, nevermore to leave him. But for the moment they wanted to see where Jesus was staying and carry out those words of Scripture: “If you see a man of prudence, seek him out; let your feet wear away his doorstep! Lear from him the precepts of the Lord” (Si 6,36).
So Jesus showed them where he was staying. They came and remained with him. What a happy day they spent together! What a blessed night! Who can tell us what they heard from the Lord’s mouth? But let us, too, build a dwelling in our hearts, raise up a house where Christ can come to instruct and converse with us.
St. Cyril of Alexandria
Commentary on Saint John’s Gospel, 2, Prologue
When he saw Jesus coming toward him John said: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1,29). No longer does he say: “Prepare the way of the Lord” (Mt 3,3). That would be out of place now that at last he who was prepared for is seen, is before our very eyes. The nature of the case now calls for a different type of homily. An explanation is needed of who is present, and why he has come down to us from heaven. That is why John says: “Behold the Lamb of God”.
The prophet Isaiah told us of this in the words: «He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb before his shearer he opened not his mouth» (Is 53,7). In past ages he was typified by the law of Moses, but… its salvation was only partial; its mercy did not reach out to embrace the whole world. But now the true lamb, the victim without blemish obscurely prefigured in former times, is led to the slaughter.
It was to banish sin from the world, to overthrow the world’s Destroyer, to abolish death by dying for the entire human race, and to release us from the curse: “Dust you are and to dust you shall return” (Gn 3,19). He will become the second Adam who is not of earth but of heaven (1Cor 15,47), and will be for us the source of every blessing…. and our way to the kingdom of heaven. For one Lamb died for all to restore the whole flock on earth to God the Father; “one died for all” to make all subject to God; “one died for all” to gain all so that “all might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised to life for them” (2Cor 5,14-15).
Pope Benedict XVI
Angelus Address, January 15, 2006
Last Sunday, in which we celebrated the Baptism of the Lord, the Ordinary Time of the liturgical year began. The beauty of this season lies in the fact that it invites us to live our ordinary life as a journey of holiness, that is, of faith and friendship with Jesus continually discovered and rediscovered as Teacher and Lord, the Way, the Truth and the Life of man.
This is what John’s Gospel suggests to us in today’s liturgy when it presents the first meeting between Jesus and some of those who were to become his Apostles. They had been disciples of John the Baptist and John himself directed them to Jesus when, after baptizing him in the Jordan, he pointed him out as “the Lamb of God” (Jn 1: 36).
Two of his disciples then followed the Messiah who asked them: “What are you looking for?”. The two asked him: “Teacher, where do you stay?”. And Jesus answered: “Come and see”, that is, he invited them to follow him and stay with him for a while. They were so impressed in the few hours that they spent with Jesus that one of them, Andrew, said to his brother Simon: “We have found the Messiah”. Here are two especially important words: “seek” and “find”.
From the page of today’s Gospel, we can take these two words and find a fundamental instruction in them for the New Year: we would like it to be a time when we renew our spiritual journey with Jesus, in the joy of ceaselessly looking for and finding him. Indeed, the purest joy lies in the relationship with him, encountered, followed, known and loved, thanks to a constant effort of mind and heart. To be a disciple of Christ: for a Christian this suffices.
Friendship with the Teacher guarantees profound peace and serenity to the soul even in the dark moments and in the most arduous trials. When faith meets with dark nights, in which the presence of God is no longer “felt” or “seen”, friendship with Jesus guarantees that in reality nothing can ever separate us from his love (cf. Rom 8: 39).
To seek and find Christ, the inexhaustible source of truth and life: the Word of God asks us to take up, at the beginning of the New Year, this never-ending journey of faith. We too ask Jesus: “Teacher, where do you stay?”, and he answers us: “Come and see”. For the believer it is always a ceaseless search and a new discovery, because Christ is the same yesterday, today and for ever, but we, the world and history, are never the same, and he comes to meet us to give us his communion and the fullness of life.
Let us ask the Virgin Mary to help us to follow Jesus, savouring each day the joy of penetrating deeper and deeper into his mystery.
Basil of Seleucia
Sermon in praise of Saint Andrew, 4
“We have found the Messiah!”
Taking Peter with him, Andrew led his brother according to the flesh to the Lord, so that he, like himself, might become a disciple. This was Andrew’s first achievement. He enabled the number of disciples to grow; he introduced Peter, in whom Christ found the head of his disciples. This was so true that later, when Peter behaved admirably, he owed this to what Andrew had sown. The praise given to the one is also reflected on the other for the advantages of the one belong to the other and the one glories in the other’s merits.
What joy Peter obtained for all when he immediately answered the Lord’s question, breaking the disciples’ embarrassed silence… Peter alone said: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!” (Mt 16:16) He spoke in the name of all; in one sentence, he proclaimed the Savior and his plan of salvation. How greatly does this proclamation agree with that of Andrew! The words which Andrew spoke to Peter when he led him to Christ – “We have found the Messiah” – were confirmed by the heavenly Father when he himself inspired Peter with them (Mt 16:17): “You are the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the living God!”
