2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B - 14th January 2018
At home with the stars
Oftentimes glossy magazines whet our curiosity by placing a photo of a celebrity couple on their front page, pictured in their hideaway home and dressed in designer labels sponsored by the top fashion houses. While reading all about the couple we are given an artificial insight into a make-believe life-style, free from stress and the normal family interactive mode of living, sometimes of hidden stories of “war and peace.” In fact, like the rest of humanity, their lives, in this instance, sedated by false glamour, could be ones of ‘quiet desperation’.
At home with Jesus
Today John points out a real celebrity, the authentic one, giving him a new name, ‘the Lamb of God.’ Immediately the two disciples become ‘groupies’ and follow Jesus but from a distance. “Jesus turns round, saw them following and said, ‘What do you want?’ They answered, ‘Rabbi,’ where do you live?” There is no security, no minders for this celebrity. ‘Come and see’ he replied.
An invitation to live with the homeless one
So, these disciples followed the homeless Jesus, “saw where he lived, and stayed with him the rest of that day.”
‘Chez Moi’
The French have a most appropriate name for home, ‘chez moi’, with myself. If I could be at home with Jesus today, I would be at home with myself, content with myself, and indeed, more at home with my sister or brother. The challenge is to find where Jesus is.
Others will tell us where Jesus lives
Let others point out to you where Jesus lives. There are prophets and prophetesses in our midst in our praying church and community in Sacred Heart parish. Unknown to themselves, each day, by quiet example, they point out Jesus, the Lamb of God, to us. Perhaps today I might hear the faint sound of his voice inviting me to come to his home, his no-fixed abode in this life. Let us pray that we might spend the rest of the day, or indeed, the rest of our days in his company.
Fr.Michael McCullagh c.m.