{"id":1535,"date":"2015-01-18T14:47:38","date_gmt":"2015-01-18T19:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1535"},"modified":"2015-01-18T14:47:38","modified_gmt":"2015-01-18T19:47:38","slug":"2nd-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-b-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/2nd-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-b-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

2nd<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B<\/a>
\n1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19
\n1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20
\nJohn 1:35-42
\nJanuary 18, 2015<\/p>\n

Standing with some of his disciples, John the Baptist sees Jesus walk by and immediately points his disciples to Jesus with the words \u201cBehold, the Lamb of God\u201d<\/em>.\u00a0 John has no interest in keeping his disciples to himself.\u00a0 He ministers to lead people to Jesus.<\/p>\n

When Andrew and the other disciple hear John\u2019s words, they immediately follow Jesus.\u00a0 Jesus asks them, \u201cWhat are you looking for?<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 In their response they call Him \u201cRabbi\u201d showing they recognize He is someone special.<\/p>\n

Without really answering His question they ask Jesus where He is staying.\u00a0 This question isn\u2019t a simple matter or geography or looking for lodging.\u00a0 The place could signify something about who Jesus really is and what He is doing.\u00a0 Jesus invites them to come and see.<\/p>\n

In coming to church, we are, in effect, coming to see Jesus.\u00a0 What are we looking for?\u00a0 Are we looking for a miracle worker to do us a favor and then move on without obligation?\u00a0 Coming here, as we just looking for something to make us feel good for a little bit?\u00a0 Do we come here seeking a God who agrees with our beliefs?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing wrong in asking for miracles but are we willing to commit<\/em><\/strong> to a relationship with Jesus, trusting in whatever He does for us, great miracle or otherwise?<\/p>\n

Some people would like Mass to make us feel \u201cwarm and fuzzy inside\u201d.\u00a0 Coming to Mass should help us feel better but not just \u201cwarm and fuzzy\u201d on a superficial level but by drawing us into a deeper relationship with God that transcends earthly things.\u00a0 The \u201cwarm and fuzzy feeling\u201d can be nice but it doesn\u2019t always last very long.\u00a0 Jesus invites us to a deeper joy.<\/p>\n

Do we expect God to agree with us?\u00a0 Won\u2019t things be great if God saw things our way so we can living the way we want<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Do you want to know something?\u00a0 I don\u2019t things would be that great if God would just do things our way.\u00a0 I know I am not perfect and what I want isn\u2019t always what is best.\u00a0 What is convenient for me isn\u2019t always right. That\u2019s why I come to Jesus, to seek His guidance.<\/p>\n

Andrew and the others immediately followed Jesus.\u00a0 They must have sensed something about Him to recognize Him as the Messiah.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t always find it easy to know what Jesus is saying.\u00a0 There are too many different voices out there.\u00a0 Which one is Jesus?\u00a0 It isn\u2019t always easy to recognize Jesus\u2019 voice.<\/p>\n

Look at Samuel.\u00a0 He is a dedicated servant of the Lord, even sleeping near the Ark of God.\u00a0 God speaks to him three times but he does not recognize it as God\u2019s voice.\u00a0 He just assumes it must be Eli.\u00a0 In time, Samuel will learn to recognize God\u2019s voice but he must first build a deep relationship with the Lord.<\/p>\n

Do we seek a deeper relationship with the Lord?\u00a0 Are we willing to make God part of our whole <\/em>life?\u00a0 As Paul writes to the Corinthians, he realizes that they think some things they do don\u2019t have any connection to their relationship with God.\u00a0 In this case, Paul speaks to them of \u201cimmorality.\u201d\u00a0 As we read this, we can realize that Paul isn\u2019t speaking of just any immorality but a specific category.\u00a0 In this case, Paul is speaking about sexual behavior.\u00a0 They think it doesn\u2019t matter but it does because it says something about how we view other people.\u00a0 Are they people to be treated with love and dignity or something we use for pleasure?<\/p>\n

We need a deeper relationship with the Lord to understand such things.\u00a0 I think a lot of people have a very general<\/em> sense of what the Church teaches here but many don\u2019t know specifics and many don\u2019t know why<\/em><\/strong>?<\/p>\n

I think the same can be true for a lot of things.\u00a0 For instance, the annual March for Life will be this week.\u00a0 I think a lot of people know the Church objects to abortion but don\u2019t know why<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 The same can be true for the death penalty and end of life issues.<\/p>\n

I think we all need to learn more about how the Lord calls us to live and why<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 It means putting some effort into reading Catholic teaching, not just what\u2019s in the news or other people\u2019s opinion.\u00a0 What we hear at Mass is a starting point, not the whole point.<\/p>\n

Step one begins with truly committing ourselves to the Lord, opening our heart and repeating Samuel\u2019s words, \u201cSpeak, Lord, for your servant is listening.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19 1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20 John 1:35-42 January 18, 2015 Standing with some of his disciples, John the Baptist sees Jesus walk by and immediately points his disciples to Jesus with the words \u201cBehold, the Lamb of God\u201d.\u00a0 John has no interest in keeping his …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-oL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1535"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1535"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1536,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1535\/revisions\/1536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}