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2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (B)Come and you will see 1. Opening prayer 2. Reading a) To place this passage in its context: This passage introduces us at the beginning of the evangelical account of John, clearly showing the succession of one day after another of a whole week. Here we are already on the third day since John the Baptist began to give his witness of Jesus, which had reached plenitude, with the invitation to the disciples to follow the Lord, the Lamb of God. The ministry of Jesus begins during these days, the Word of the Father, who descends in the midst of men to meet them and to speak with them and dwell among them. b) To help in the reading of the passage: vv. 35-36: John the Baptist lives a very strong experience of encounter with Jesus, in fact it is precisely here, on the third day, that he recognizes him fully, that he proclaims him with his whole strength and indicates him as the true way to follow, as the life to be lived. Here John diminishes himself to the point of disappearing and grows as witness of the light. vv. 37-39: Having accepted the witness of their master, the disciples of John begin to follow Jesus; after having listened to his voice, they meet the Word and allow themselves to be challenged by it. Jesus looks at them, he knows them and begins his dialogue with them. He takes them with him, introduces them into the place of his dwelling and makes them remain with him. The Evangelist indicates the exact hour of this face to face encounter, of this exchange of life between Jesus and the first disciples. vv. 40-42: Immediately the witness flares up and spreads; Andrew cannot keep silence what he has seen and heard, what he has experienced and lived and immediately becomes a missionary, calling his brother Peter to come to encounter Jesus. He, fixing his look on that man, calls him and transforms his life: he was Simon, now he becomes Peter. c) Text:
3. A moment of prayerful silence I remain in silence and allow that these simple, but powerful words, envelope me, take possession of my life. I allow Jesus, who is coming, to fix his look on me, I allow him to ask me, like he asked them: “What are you looking for?” and I allow him to take me with him, to his house. Because, yes, I want to dwell near Him... 4. Some questions Now, I try to listen more attentively to this passage, taking every word, every verb, being attentive to the movements, to the looks. I really try to encounter the Lord in this page, allowing myself to be searched and known by Him. a) “The next day John stood there again”. b) “Fixing his look on Jesus”. c) “They followed Jesus” d) “What do you search?” e) “They remained with him” f) “And leads them to Jesus”. 5. A key for the reading a) The Lamb of God: In v. 36 John announces Jesus as the Lamb of God, repeating the cry which he had already given previously, the day before: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. The identification of Jesus with the Lamb is overflowing with Biblical references, both from the Old and the New Testament. The Lamb already is mentioned in the Book of Genesis, in chapter 22, at the moment of the sacrifice of Isaac; God provides a lamb, to be offered as holocaust instead of the son. The lamb descends from heaven and takes upon himself the death of man; the lamb is immolated, so that the son may live. In the Book of Exodus, in chapter 12, the Pascal Lamb is offered, a lamb without blemish, perfect; his blood which will be poured will save the sons from the exterminator, who goes from house to house, during the night. From that moment every son of God will remain signed, sealed, by that blood of salvation. Thus the way is opened to freedom, the way of exodus, to go to God, to enter in the land promised by Him. Here begins the following, which leads up to the Apocalypses, up to the reality of heaven. The element of sacrifice, of the slaughter, of the total gift accompanies constantly the figure of the lamb; the books of Leviticus and of Numbers continually place before us this holy presence of the lamb: he is offered every day in the daily holocaust; he is immolated in all the sacrifices of expiation, of reparation, of sanctification. The Prophets also speak about a lamb prepared for the sacrifice: a mute sheep, sheared without opening his mouth, like a tame and meek lamb led to the slaughter (Is 53, 7; Jer 11, 19). The Lamb sacrificed on the altar every day. In the Gospel, it is John the Baptist who announces and manifests Jesus as the true Lamb of God, who takes upon himself the sin of man and cancels it by the shedding of his precious and pure Blood. In fact, He is the Lamb immolated in the place of Isaac; He is the Lamb roasted in the fire on the Pascal night. The Lamb of liberation; He is the perennial sacrifice to the Father, offered for us; He is the suffering servant, who does not rebel himself, does not recriminate but surrenders himself, silently, out of love for us. Saint Peter says this openly: “You have been liberated from the futile way of your life thanks to the precious blood of Christ, like the lamb, without blemish and spotless”. (I Pt 1, 19). The Apocalypses reveals openly all things concerning the Lamb: He is the one who can open the seals of history, of the life of every man, of the hidden heart, of truth (Ap 7, 1.3.5.7.9.12; 8, 1); He is the one who obtained victory, the one sitting on the throne (Ap 5, 6), He is the king, worthy of honour, praise, glory, adoration (Ap. 5, 12); He is the Spouse, who invites to his Wedding Banquet (Ap. 19, 7); He is the lamp (Ap 21, 23), the temple (Ap 21, 22), the place of our eternal dwelling; He is the Shepherd (Ap 7, 17), whom we shall follow wherever he goes (Ap 14, 4). b) To see: In this passage are repeated five times, expressions concerning seeing, the encounter of the looks. The first one is John, who already has the eye accustomed to see at depth and to recognize the Lord who comes and passes by; he had to render witness to the light and for this reason has the eyes enlightened from within. In fact, near the Jordan River, he sees the Spirit coming down on Jesus (Mt 3, 16); he recognizes him as the Lamb of God (Jn 1, 29) and continued to fix his look (v. 36) on Him to indicate Him to his disciples. And if John sees in this way, if he is capable of penetrating into the appearances, it means that already before he had been joined by the loving look of Jesus, he had been enlightened before. In the same way as we are. As soon as the witness of the look dies out, the light of the eyes of Christ is attained. In v. 38 it is said that Jesus sees the disciples who follow him and the Evangelist uses a very beautiful verb, which means “to fix the look on someone, to look penetratingly and intensely” The Lord truly does this with us: He turns toward us, gets close to us, takes to heart our presence, our life, our path following Him and looks at us, for a long time, above all, with love, but also intensely, involving himself, with deep attention. His look never leaves us alone. His eyes are fixed within us; they are designed within us, as Saint John of the Cross sings in his Spiritual Canticle. And then the Lord invites us, in turn, to open the eyes, to begin to see in a true way; He says: “Come and see”. Every day He repeats this to us, without getting tired of addressing this tender and strong invitation, overflowing with promises and with gifts. “They saw where he was dwelling”, John, points out, using a different verb, very strong, which indicates to see profoundly, which goes beyond superficiality and contacts, which enters in understanding, in knowledge and in the faith of what one sees. The disciples – and we with them – saw, that afternoon, where Jesus dwelt, that is, they understood and knew which is his true dwelling place, not a place, not a space... Lastly, once again we have the same verb as in the beginning. Jesus fixes his look on Simon (v. 42) and with that light, with that encounter of eyes, of souls, he calls him by name and changes his life, makes him a new man. The eyes of the Lord are open also in this same way on us and they wash us from the ugliness of our darkness, enlightening us with love; with those eyes He is calling us, is making a new creation of us, is saying: “May there be light”, and there was light. c) To remain – to dwell This is another very important verb, very strong, another precious pearl of the Gospel of John. In our passage it is repeated three times, with two different meanings; to dwell and to remain. The disciples immediately ask Jesus where He dwells, where is his house and he invites them to go, to enter, to remain: “They remained with him that day” (v. 39). It is not a physical remaining, temporary; the disciples are not only guests passing by, who will leave soon. No, the Lord makes space for us in his interior place, in his relationship with the Father and there he accepts us for always; in fact, he says: “Like, you Father, are in me and I in you, may these also be in us... I in them and you in me...” (Jn 17, 21-23). He allows us to enter and he also enters; he allows to knock and He himself knocks; he makes us dwell in Him and puts his dwelling place in us together with the Father (Jn 14, 23). Our call to be disciples of Christ and to announce him to our brothers and sisters, has its origin, its foundation, its vitality, precisely here, in this reality of the reciprocal dwelling of the Lord in us and we in Him. Our true and lasting happiness springs from the realization of our remaining in Him. We have seen where He dwells, we have known the place of his presence and we have decided to remain with Him, today and always. “Remain in me and I in you... The one who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit... If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for anything that you want and it will be given to you... Remain in my love” (Jn 15). No, I will not go with anybody else, I will not go anywhere else but only with you, Oh Lord, my dwelling, my place of salvation! Allow me, I pray, that I may remain here, near you, always, Amen 6. A moment of prayer: Psalm 34 Refrain: Your face, Lord, I seek, do not hide your face from me. I seek Yahweh and he answers me, Taste and see that Yahweh is good. The eyes of Yahweh are on the upright, 7. Final Prayer Father, I thank you for having given me the presence of your Son Jesus in the luminous words of this Gospel; thank you for having made me listen to his voice, for having opened my eyes to recognize him; thank you for having placed me on the way to follow him and to enter into his house, Thank you because I can dwell with Him, in Him and because He dwells in you, you are in me. Thank you for having, once more, called me, making my life new. Make of me, I beg you, an instrument of your love; that I may never stop announcing Christ who comes; that I may not be embarrassed, that I do not close myself, do not give up, but always become happier, to lead to Him, to You, the brothers and sisters whom you, every day, make me encounter. Amen. |
35 The next day as John stood there again with two of his disciples, Jesus went past, 36 and John looked towards him and said, 'Look, there is the lamb of God.' 37 And the two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus. 38 Jesus turned round, saw them following and said, 'What do you want?' They answered, 'Rabbi' -- which means Teacher-'where do you live?' 39 He replied, 'Come and see'; so they went and saw where he lived, and stayed with him that day. It was about the tenth hour. 40 One of these two who became followers of Jesus after hearing what John had said was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother and say to him, 'We have found the Messiah' -- which means the Christ -- 42 and he took Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, 'You are Simon son of John; you are to be called Cephas' -- which means Rock.
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