The Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
The
celebrated author, J.R.R. Tolkien, put these words into the mouth of his
illustrious hobbit, Bilbo Baggins: “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out
of your door. You step into the Road,
and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept
off to.”[1] It is advice that Bilbo himself did not keep
and neither did Frodo, for they found themselves swept up in the story of the
Ring.
It is
advice that Andrew also did not keep, for he was swept up in the story of Jesus
Christ. When Andrew took his first step
away from John the Baptist and after Jesus, he had no idea where that step
would take him. He did not know that
that one step would bring him to the multiplication of the loaves or would find
him bringing the Greeks to Jesus (cf. John 6:8-15 and 12:20-26). Nor did he know that that first step, if he
let himself be carried away and swept up into the life of the Savior, would
take him to Patras to give his life for Christ on an X-shaped cross. Bilbo’s words are true indeed.
What did
Andrew see in Jesus that led him to drop everything and follow him? Why did he follow Jesus who, as Pope Benedict
says, “did not give him answers but required him to trust”?[2] He may not have heard the answer to his
questions, but he knew that the one who passed by was himself the Answer.
Andrew
was a disciple of John the Baptist, which meant that he was looking for
something, for someone. This is why
Jesus asked him, “What are you looking for” (John 1:38).
Andrew knew that John, whom he
first followed, “was sent from God” and that he came “to testify to the light,
so that all might believe through him” (John 1:6-7). Andrew sought this Light, the Lamb of God,
the Messiah.
What is it that you and I
seek? There is one thing that each of us
seeks, even if we do not quite know how to express it: we desire the happy
life, but we often do not know where or how we will find it.
Andrew
knew that he could only find happiness in the Messiah, the Anointed One of God,
and so for him he looked and waited. His
desire to wait for the Messiah shows him to be “truly a man of faith and hope.”[3] The moment he heard John the Baptist say, as he
pointed to Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” must have stirred him deep within,
for at that moment he and another of John’s disciples followed Jesus, they
took, that first step, which shows that he was also a man of deep courage and
firm conviction (John 1:36, 37).
I took
my first step after Jesus – not knowing where it would or will lead – many
years ago. The Lord first began to call
to me through the two most decisive moments in my life: the deaths of my
parents. When my father died when I was
seven and when my mother died twenty-one twenty-seven years ago today, I became like those
two disciples who waited for the Messiah.
The
words of the Psalmist could easily be my own: “I have waited, waited for the
Lord, and he stooped toward me and heard my cry. And he put a new song into my mouth, a hymn
to our God” (Psalm 40:2,4). I sought the
Lord, I cried out for him, and when at last I found him in prayer, in the
Scriptures and in the Sacraments, I stayed with him, I rested in him, and I
learned from him.
I came
to believe ever more strongly that “God raised the Lord and will also raise us
by his power” (I Corinthians 6:14). As a
young boy, I learned all too well the frailty and brevity of life, along with
its sufferings, and I knew, almost intuitively, that what Saint Paul said is
true: “You are not your own. For you
have been purchased at a price.
Therefore glorify God in your body” (I Corinthians 6:1-20).
When I
began my high school studies, I naturally began to consider my future and what
it meant to glorify God in my body.
Slowly I began to realize that I could glorify God in my body only if I
did what he wanted me to do and I knew that in doing his will I would find
fulfillment, joy, and peace. I knew the
Psalmist was right, that “In the written scroll it is prescribed for me, to do your
will, O my God, is my delight” (Psalm 40:8).
But what was his will?
At
first, I decided to study history and be a teacher, but very soon after I began
looking into colleges it became clear to me that this would not be a life I would find fulfilling. Others would,
but not me. It might have been what I
wanted – or at least thought I wanted – but it was not what God wanted. I began to realize that the Lord was calling
me to his priesthood. And so I said to
him, “Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will” (Psalm 40:8-9).
Why did
the Lord choose me? I do not know. I only know that he calls whom he wills. The Lord called to me slowly and in many ways
through the circumstances of my life.
Like Samuel, hearing his call and recognizing it was a bit of a journey
in itself and it took the help of others to recognize; just as Samuel needed
Eli to hear the Lord and as Peter needed Andrew to hear his call, so I needed
the help of my friends and fellow parishioners to hear his call for me.
My
brothers and sisters, we know that the Eucharist is central to the life of the
Catholic faith and that without priests we cannot have the Eucharist.
We see
in the call of Andrew, Peter, and John that the Lord called them to a deeper
communion with him than he called his other disciples. Before long, Jesus would choose from his
disciples twelve men whom he called Apostles.
These Apostles were his ambassadors, those who would act in his name and
carry on his mission, and their ministry has been passed down through the
centuries through the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
As we consider the call of the
Apostles, we see that the Lord Jesus did not simply call everyone to fulfill
his ministry, nor did he call a random few.
He chose specific men to fulfill his mission for the forgiveness of
sins. The Lord Jesus continues to call
certain men to himself, to stay with him, to be his ambassadors, his presence,
in the world today, and he continues to call them personally. He continues to call those whom he wishes to
make his presence known through the forgiveness of sins and the Eucharist.
Regretfully, too few young men
are responding to the call of the Lord with generous and courageous hearts; too
many keep their feet, as it were, and will not allow themselves to be caught up
in the life of Christ.
The call
of the Lord can be ignored and it can be stifled, but it cannot be
silenced. If we consider again the fact
that each of us wants the happy life, we know, too, that the Lord desires the
happy life for each of us. And, what is
more, he knows what will bring us happiness better than we do, for it is he who
made us. If we knew what would bring us
lasting happiness we would already have attained it.
My
brothers and sisters, we know that the Eucharist is central to our life and
faith and that without priests we cannot have the Eucharist. Who will celebrate the Mass for future
generations? Who will absolve sins in
the Lord’s name? Who will anoint the
sick? Who will accompany us on our final
journey?
Each of
us needs to double our efforts and prayers to encourage young men to follow
after Jesus Christ as his priests.
Priests do not simply fall out of heaven; they come from within
families. Could it be that the Lord is
calling your son to the priesthood? If
he is, encourage him to respond generously and courageously.
It is
true that a priestly life is not always easy, but no life is; even married life
has its struggles and hardships. “The
Lord’s ways are not easy, but we are not made for ease.”[4] We are made, rather, for virtue, for growth
in holiness, which always involves a certain amount of difficulty as we die
more and more to our desires and passions.
For some, holiness is attained through marriage; for
others, holiness is attained through a life of priestly service. In the end, holiness always leads to joy, for
it is the will of God for us in Christ Jesus.
In the
end, the question that all young men must ask is not so much, “What do I want
from life,” but “What does not God want from my life; what does God want me to
do?” If the answer is to follow him as
did Andrew, Peter, and John, if the answer is to be one of his priests, then
that young man should gladly lose his feet and be swept up in the great adventure of
Jesus Christ.
Let each of us, then, encourage
young men to say to the Lord, “Speak, for your servant is listening,” and if
the Lord is calling them to his service, “Behold I come” (I Samuel 3:10; Psalm40:8). Amen!
