2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – Homily

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19
Psalm 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10 (8a and 9a)
1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20
John 1:35-42
January 17, 2021

Jesus asked the two disciples of John the Baptist, “What are you looking for?

Jesus asks us the same question today, “What are you looking for?

What do you come looking for today?

Do you come looking for an hour of peace?  That’s not a bad thing.  In our opening prayer we asked God to bestow his “peace on our times.”

Do you come looking for something that will make you feel warm and fuzzy? Faith is more than that.

Do you come looking for your favorite music?  Music in church is not just a matter of taste. Music is part of our prayer when it connects us with God.

Do you come seeking God’s Will, “Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will”?  The psalmist says that doing God’s will is his delight.  Is it your delight? 

Do you come to hear God’s Word and be strengthened in the Eucharist?

 John the Baptist was a great servant of the Lord.  Last week we heard him say, “One mightier than I is coming after me.”  He was all about Jesus. 

So, when Jesus was walking by, John immediately told his two disciples that were with him, “Behold the Lamb of God,” and they immediately followed Jesus.  Andrew, one of the two, then went and told his brother Simon, who will become Peter, “We have found the Messiah.” 

Do you point people to Jesus?  God has put a new song into you.  He wants you to share it.

This might seem intimidating.  We might feel like our own faith isn’t strong enough to tell others about it.  We might think we don’t know enough.  God doesn’t ask everyone to give people “big theological lessons.”  God just wants you to share what you do know.  God wants you to do your part to open the door of faith to others.

How well do you listen to what God asks of you?

Samuel was a servant of the Lord.  Today’s first reading comes from a day when Samuel was still young so he “was not familiar with the Lord.”  He knew of the Lord and served in the temple.  Yet, he had not learned to recognize the Lord when the Lord spoke to him.  The Lord called out to Samuel three times.  Each time, Samuel eagerly responded, “Here I am.”  However, he assumed it must be Eli calling him. 

After the third time Eli realized it must be the Lord calling Samuel.  Realizing this, Samuel responded to the Lord, “Speak, for your servant is listening.

Are you familiar with the Lord?  Do you recognize the Lord’s voice in your life?  We need to pray regularly to be familiar with the Lord. 

Samuel also needed Eli to help him recognize the Lord. 

Who helps you recognize the Lord?

Or, thinking of what I said before about pointing other people to Jesus, do you help others recognize the Lord in their lives?  Sometimes people are looking for the Lord without even knowing it is the Lord they seek.  They need someone to help them realize that.  Are you willing to help them?

Paul writes to the Corinthians as a people who know the Lord in some way.  He had visited them and lived with them for some time to share the gospel of Jesus with them. 

However, he has heard that they were living immoral lives, especially with regards to sexual immorality.  They still believed in Jesus but they had separated their bodily lives from their spiritual lives.  They thought what they did with their bodies didn’t matter.

It does.  As Paul says, “The body is not for immorality, but for the Lord.”  Our body is not simply a motel for our souls to hang out in until it is time for us to go to Heaven.

No, our bodies are “a temple of the Holy Spirit.”  Do we treat our bodies as such? Many don’t.

We live in a troubled world.  Why are things getting worse instead of better?  Because people have stopped listening to God!

Here one might immediately think of atheists who deny there is a god. 

There are also many people who are agnostic, meaning they doubt there is a god but do not deny there is.  Since they doubt there is a god, they do not listen to what God has to say.  They live their lives according to their own desires. 

However, atheists and agnostics are not the only ones who fail to hear what the Lord has to say.  Even believers, even some that come to church separate their spiritual lives from their bodily existence.  Thus, they too might live immoral lives.

Do you listen to God?  Do you make him part of your whole lives?  Do we really listen to and follow him so that He may bestow his “peace on our times”?

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