Second Sunday of Ordinary Time

After the anticipation of Advent and all the fuss of Christmas and the new year here we are back at ordinary time. With the COVID 19 pandemic continuing and the recent events in Washington it is good to note that no matter what happens faith in God continues and we as people of faith pray for those affected by the Pandemic as well as praying for peace in the USA and the world.
In this Sunday’s Gospel the apostles asked Jesus “Where do you live”? his reply was “Come and see”. Invitations as we know come in all shapes and sizes. Some come in the mail or in e-mail. Others come on the street corner by word of mouth. Others come in unexpected ways. Some are personal, almost intimate. Others are general and impersonal. No matter what the invitation means, an invitation tells us that you are invited please come. We see Jesus inviting the apostles to come and see by association through faith all of us are invited and welcome to come and see what’s going on in our Faith Communities.
When we accept the invitation of Jesus we have to ask ourselves why do we come and what do we seek? The early disciples of Jesus must have asked themselves those same questions. Living in a culture that distrusted novelty, they would go and see something new and that was the public appearance of the Messiah. We in our turn live in a culture that distrusts faith and people of faith as well as many other things and I often wonder what Jesus would think if he was here today. The people in this gospel story like you and me are out there looking and searching for God. Like the disciples we are seekers who want to stay or at least try and stay with Jesus. John’s disciples were seekers and it is late in the day for them as the gospel tells us. All of us remember special moments by recalling the date and the time they happen. John tells us, “It was about four in the afternoon,” when the disciples received their invitation from Jesus. They need rest from their search and Jesus is offering it to them. The “four in the afternoon” possibly refers to the beginning of the Sabbath the next day.
The invitation to come and see is an invitation to deepen our friendship with God and find rest in his presence. It is an invitation to enrich our belief in the faith that we profess each time we celebrate the sacramental life of the Church wherever we are in the world. We, are being invited to follow Jesus with all that is going on in our lives and our world at this time, Invited to spend time with him and to discover who he is here and now, not dwelling on the past or looking to the future the past is gone and the future may never be ours to have. The big question for us this weekend is will we accept the invitation that Jesus gives us in our time to come and see the one who has the message of eternal life or will we just ignore the invitation?