Homily for 2^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time 2009

Fr Jack and I have been along to the Zero Gravity Camp at Maranatha, near Yandina last week. There are about 160 young people attending. Over a dozen are from here. They seem to be having a great time. They are being encouraged to pray and deepen their awareness and love of God. And also to commit themselves to their discipleship of Jesus as they enter adulthood. As they enter into a new phase of their faith journey, it is as though Jesus is asking them, "What do you want?" Because I am sure that not all of then fully know why they went on the camp or what they hoped it would be for them. Like all of us, they do seek to have their life and spirituality taken seriously and to have a life that is based on honesty and justice. Equally we seek a religious practice that is also one of integrity and not sham.

A story:

A woman dashed into the mall to do some quick shopping but in he3r haste she lost her purse. A n honest teenage boy came up to her and asked, Excuse me, but is this your purse? With relief the woman thanked the boy and looked inside the purse. That's odd, she remarked, earlier I had a twenty dollar note inside, but now it's gone. Instead there are four fives. Well, the boy explained, the last time I found a lady's purse she didn't have change for a reward.

We seek and expect honesty in our religion.

The spirit of those at Maranatha, and that of each of us in our homes, is a universe away from the people in their homes in Gaza or Darfur. I cannot imagine the anger and terror and grief that so much conflict and death causes. I cannot imagine the insecurity and hopelessness of the lives of people in those places compared with our relative peace. What do we get angry about? What are we passionate about? What motivates our actions?

So what do you want? This is what Jesus asks us the two disciples who leave John the Baptist to follow him. Where do you live? They replied. It was the practice of Rabbis to have their disciples stay with them while he taught them. We need time in prayer to know what we truly want and need deep in our guts. We need prayer to hear God speak to us.

We like the boy Samuel in the temple at Shiloh do find that this listening can take some time. We do not immediately recognise the voice nor what is being asked of us. (This holy place at Shiloh existed long before the Temple in Jerusalem had even been thought of.) It can take some time for us to open our ears to hear God's call. It can take a lifetime for some. For us it is through Jesus that we hear this call. He is the Lamb of God we have chosen to follow.

It has been a constant teaching of the spiritual guides throughout history that what we truly want is at first sight very simple. We want to hear God, or someone like God, say to us "I love you." Or as we read in the scripture last week of the Father speaking of Jesus, You are my beloved child, or as the psalmist says: you are the apple of my eye. Most often this word of love is mediated through other people in our lives. And we human beings as we well know are frail and vulnerable as ourselves. They can only point out to us the message as Eli did or as John the Baptist did.

That initiative of God, this affirmation is the foundation of all we are and hope to be. There is nothing in this world, neither life nor death, war or famine, that can shake that foundation once we hear it. That is why people have been prepared to be martyrs for their faith.

At the other end of John's Gospel we find Mary Magdalene looking for Jesus after meeting the angels at Jesus' tomb. Jesus says to her, "Whom are you looking for?" She thought he was the gardener and asked if he knew where Jesus had been taken. Jesus simply said to her, "Mary." With that simple use of her name Jesus recognised her grief and expressed his love. On that basis Mary was able to say to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord."

When we are able to open our ears to God's call and hear our name then we too will be able to make that act of faith.

Fr Graham