Second Sunday
in Ordinary Time – B
The notion of vocation in the Gospel should not be restricted to the
priestly or religious vocation. In the case of Jesus it is a vocation to the
discipleship, vocation to follow Christ, to become the child of God. We all are
called to follow this path.
Jesus calls us to follow Him and finally to enter eternal live. This is
the reason why He became a man. His vocation is much more serious and much
deeper then we expect means the happiness in this life.
He is not a magician satisfying our desires and caprices, His goal is
not to make our life sumptuous and luxurious. He is our Saviour; His goal is to
liberate us from the slavery of sin, from the power of evil. This is our vocation;
this is what He is calling us for.
And so, when the disciples of John are interested in the person of Jesus
and would like to follow Him, He asks them an honest question: “What are you looking for?” or what are you expecting from me, what are
you searching for? Are you expecting from me to fulfill your
expectations or your desires, your caprices?
And they ask another question: «where
are you staying». We would like to know where you are, who you are.
This is quite honest request. And so, His answer is "come and see".
This is exactly the same or similar situation when Jesus is calling me
and you. He asks precisely the same question: "What
are you looking for?” what do you
expect from me, what do you expect from God? If you would like to see what I
can give you, come and follow me, come and see.
But the misery of our times is that people nowadays
answer: "I don't have time, I am too busy, too tired, I have so much to do to
assure the financial security and prosperity of my life …" or very
often in our society of immediate gratification the answer is: "you
Jesus cannot offer me anything, because I need what you won't like to give me
and I need it NOW !!! I am not interested in your proposal; it's not answering
my expectations and my idea of a happy life. If you won't make my life happy
according to my standards so ... I am not interested and I will not buy it.
In the first reading Samuel called by God answers: "Speak,
for your servant is listening." In the Gospel the two disciples of
John the Baptist "they went and saw where Jesus was staying,
and they stayed with him that day." And as we know they stayed
with Him until the end of their lives, until their death.
We, we are doubting, we are reasoning, discussing, waiving or ignoring.
We have some serious problem in trusting God. We declare that we believe in
God, but at the same time don't believe God, we don’t trust Him.
In the wordy declaration we repeat in "Our Father … may your will
be done" and at the time we try to do always so He follows our will.
I am not accusing anybody, I am not blaming anybody, I am just trying to
find the reason why we are so unhappy having apparently everything to make us
happy?
And this is true for the priestly vocation when some
people are searching their self-realization only and if it doesn't work they
quit, they abandon; they are disappointed, frustrated and angry with God.
This is the same for the religious vocation where some
people are deciding to enter the religious life only to satisfy their
expectations and if this doesn't work they are upset and depressed. God didn't
follow their expectations, so they abandon Him.
But this is the same with the vocation to the family or
marital life. If this is not answering our "immediate gratification"
mentality, we quit, we divorce, we abandon.
So when Jesus is asking you: "“What
are you looking for?” or what
are you expecting from me, what are you searching for?" answer
honestly. When He is proposing: "Come
and see" don't delay, go and see where He is and stay with Him, like
Simon, and Andrew, and John, and Matthew, and so many others.
Because as St. Paul says in his first letter to the
Corinthians (1 Cor 1: 27-29):
"God chose (called) rather the foolish of the world to shame the wise,
he chose those who by human standards are weak to shame the strong
those who by human standards are common and contemptible -- indeed those
who count for nothing – He choose (called) to reduce to nothing all those that
do count for something,
so that no human being might boast before God."
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