Article Published

Article_142164104611041

Homilies | Saturday, January 17, 2015

Bring another person to meet Jesus

Archbishop's homily at Key Largo Mass

Archbishop Thomas Wenski preached the following homily Jan. 17, 2015 at a Mass celebrated in the Interdenominational Chapel at Ocean Reef in Key Largo.

Today’s readings are really about a series of introductions. In the first reading, we hear the interplay between Eli and the young Samuel. Samuel hears a voice – and thinks it is Eli calling out to him. Samuel at this point is “not familiar with the Lord.” In the great scheme of things, Eli’s place – as a high priest – is to introduce others to the Lord. And that’s what Eli does for Samuel. And being introduced to the Lord also means being introduced to a new vocation, a new way of life. Samuel goes on to become the last of Israel’s great judges. He is the first of the kingmakers. He has books in the Bible named after him. But it all began with an introduction through which Samuel learned to respond, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”

Fast forward maybe a thousand years and we come to the Gospel reading of today in which we find John the Baptist and Andrew doing what Eli did: introducing others to the Lord. John the Baptist has his own followers, his own disciples - but he sends them to Jesus. John the Baptist is called the precursor, the one who prepares the way of the Lord. That’s his role – he points away from himself to the Christ. You might say that he was running his own version of “Harmony.com.” He was a one man introduction agency, not for people looking for a mate but for people looking for the Messiah. And introducing his disciples to the Lord, he is introducing them to their new future.

One of those disciples was Andrew. John points him in the right direction: There is the Lamb of God! He leaves John and follows Jesus. But what John the Baptist did for Andrew, Andrew does for his brother Simon. He shares his experience with Simon, he tells him that he has met the Christ – the Messiah – and he introduces him to Jesus. And that seems to be the special function or role of Andrew in the Gospel. We find him introducing people to Jesus. Before the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, it was Andrew who found the young boy with the loaves and fishes and took him to Jesus. And once just before the Passover, some Greeks showed up and asked Phillip if they could see Jesus. Phillip tells Andrew and together they take this delegation to Jesus.

So in today’s readings we find some interesting people whose main role is to bring people into the presence of the Lord. And these readings beg two questions. The first question is: Who was it that introduced you to Jesus? Each one of us can think of someone in particular who put us on our journey to faith, thus bringing us to Jesus. And for many of us we can also think gratefully of someone who cared enough about us to reintroduce us to Jesus when for one reason or another we had strayed. But nobody really gets to Jesus by herself or himself. We meet Jesus through a litany of other people. We all have come to Jesus by way of generations of Christians who have shared their experience of Jesus, people who were first introduced to Jesus by others. The story of Christianity is a story of a great chain of witnesses linked through the Apostles to Jesus himself. That is part of what we mean when we say in the Creed, “I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. So who was it that introduced you to Jesus – and in doing so changed your whole life?

And the second question is: Who have you introduced to Jesus. Who do you “play” Andrew for by bringing him or her as Andrew brought Simon Peter to Jesus?

Our recent Archdiocesan Synod had as its motto, “Disciples in Faith, Missionaries of Hope.” And Pope Francis has often spoken of how we Christians must be “missionary disciples” – so that people will come to have life in Christ. To be an effective missionary, we must be, of course, committed disciples. As St. Paul tells us in the second reading, once we are disciples we don’t belong to ourselves – we belong to the Lord and we were “purchased for a great price.” So discipleship means that we accept a relationship with the Lord, not on our own terms but on his. But even as we are called to walk with Jesus – to come and see as Jesus told those first disciples, we are also called to be “missionaries.” To be a “missionary” we don’t have to be like a Francis Xavier and go to India and China – although to be sure some do indeed have that vocation. For us, to be a missionary, simply means doing our part to introduce others to Jesus.

One way we can be “missionary disciples” is through supporting the ABCD. The Archbishop’s Charity and Development Campaign is our annual appeal to support the world of the Church above and beyond what happens in our parishes. One in Faith, One in Hope, One in Charity, we are called as a Church to promote and support the spiritual and corporal works of mercy made possible through the ABCD. Today, many people could be said to resemble young Samuel in the first reading: they are “not familiar with the Lord.” They need an Eli to lead them to the Lord, to instruct them, to say, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.” Thanks to your generosity, people are being introduced to Jesus through the life saving and life changing ministries supported through the ABCD.

As both Pope Benedict and Pope Francis have insisted, Christianity is not about an ideology. It is not about an idea or even a moral system. It is about an encounter with a person – who lives today and is present with us in both Word and Sacrament.

As I said, the readings today beg two questions: Who introduced you to Jesus? And who have you introduced to Jesus? If we believe that Jesus is worth knowing, then how could we not try to bring others into his loving presence? Today, we need people like Andrew – and those people are you – to bring another person to meet Jesus.

     

Powered by Parish Mate | E-system

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply