Jan 17, 2021 - 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

(1 Sam 3:3b-10, 19; 1 Cor 6:13c-15a, 17-20;  Jn 1:35-42)

God longs to be known but He draws us to himself more mysteriously. We get two great examples of this in today’s readings. First, when God is calling Samuel, it takes Samuel three times before he finally realizes God is speaking to him. And in the Gospel, Jesus, upon meeting the two disciples asks, “What are you looking for?” They reply “Where are you staying and Jesus simply tells his disciples “Come and see.”

“Come and see” This is the method of God. He doesn’t want to just give us answers, but to live life with us. When the disciples follow Christ, the Gospel says that they “stayed with him.” When we stay with God, we can begin to hear and see clearly, and begin to find him in the quiet of our hearts. When we work to hear and to see spiritually, we begin to see that God longs for an intimate friendship with us. Listening for God isn’t just about figuring out his will and doing what he tells us, but about living a life of friendship with him and responding to his love out of love for him.

• When speaking of prayer, St. Alphonsus Ligouri encourages us to “acquire the habit of speaking to God as if you were alone with him, familiarly and with confidence and love, as to the dearest and most loving of friends.”
• When has God spoken to you through events in your life? Can you think of specific people through whom God speaks into your life? When have you been able to be God’s voice to someone else, like Eli to Samuel? Do you find it difficult to know if it’s his voice?
• What distracts you in your daily life from the truth that God is doing things in every moment to love us? When do you find yourself wandering from Jesus during the day and how can you stay with Jesus more in your daily life?