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JESUS TURNED AROUND AND SAW THEM FOLLOWING AND SAID WHAT DO YOU WANT? THEY ANSWERED RABBI WHICH MEANS TEACHER, WHERE DO YOU LIVE? (JOHN 1.38)
This, we are told, is the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time. The time seems extraordinary, for we are not at ease in the old dispensation. After all that has happened, are we really back where we started? After all we have been through: The Silent night, when peaceful stillness lay over all, and night had run the half of her swift course, and when down from the heavens, from the royal throne leapt your all powerful Word. For this is a Word that will not return until its mission is accomplished. It is a Word that is a lot more powerful and transformative, and a lot less destructive, than a large meteorite that comes at great speed and buries itself deep in the earth to vaporises explosively. This word is gentle, for it is the Word by which the heavens and earth were made and are being made. It is the word of love, beautiful, noble, generous, resourceful and infinitely creative.
And John proclaimed Him, as we do later in Mass: Behold the Lamb of God, Behold Him who takes away the sins of the World.
Many rush towards Him, for no one has ever spoken as beautifully as He or with such authority. Some come with specific favours in mind. Others simply address Him as Rabbi, Master, thereby pledging themselves as His disciples. To these He gives power to become Children of God.
If we too seek to enlist with Wisdom, the Great King, it might seem reasonable to enquire what are the terms and conditions and rewards for service. We have heard of the phrase ‘taking the King’s shilling’. So what would be in it for us?
Do we wish to see the World?
Wisdom is quicker to move than any motion, she is so pure she pervades and permeates all things.
How quick? What of the speed of light? Compared with light, she takes first place, for light must yield to night, but against Wisdom, evil cannot prevail.
Can we depend on promises given? – Wisdom, again we read in the Book of Wisdom, is beneficent, friendly to human beings, steadfast, dependable, unperturbed.
Do we wish to perform mighty deeds and great miracles? To give life and health, nourishment and happiness all over the world to billions?
If so, the sure way to do so is to become His disciples, to allow ourselves become Children of God and so rejoice in His great works as if they were our own, as by His grace they are. And may all our works be His that we may praise the Lord working within us and that we may live in His presence all the days of our life now and forever Amen.