NewCreation

Homily for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

Welcome, my sisters and brothers, to this the homily for the second Sunday in ordinary time. Last time, you may remember, we had the baptism of our Lord. We had Mark's version, we had that huge density of fulfillment in the coming in of the Holy One of God. Today we move into, if you like, looking at the same thing in slow motion, beginning to see what the consequences of that are and how they unfold. And to help us, rather a lovely reading from the book of Samuel. What I want to bring out first, because it helps us fit into what then goes on in John, is how intimate this is. The sense that old Eli the priest, disappointed in his sons with good reason, is sleeping in some other place, and young Samuel is in the Temple. And Samuel hears the voice; he doesn't recognize it, he doesn't understand it, he doesn't know who it is who's talking to him. He goes three times to see Eli to say, "Hey, hey, boss, yeah, I'm here, what do you want?" And eventually Eli twigs that it's the Lord who's speaking, and tells Samuel — who doesn't know the Lord, though he works in the Temple, doesn't know the voice of the Lord — to wait until he can be reached. And the voice comes for him, and he's able to grow, because the voice of the Lord never says anything that isn't creative of the being of the one to whom he speaks. Well, we have something like that here in the incredible intimate minutiae of what's going on in today's Gospel. So this is the third day in the first week which John describes. The beginning of John's Gospel is set out in six days, the sixth day being the wedding of Cana in Galilee, when Jesus works his first sign — the sign showing how he is bringing in the seventh day, the new creation, the fullness of creation. So we now have these steps leading up to the beginning of the time of the signs, the beginning of the working creation into being. John had pointed out and said — he'd seen him — he said: "This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." He's indicated that this is the Son, this is the one who is coming in. And the next day, John again was standing with two of his disciples, two of John's disciples. It's important that we're now going to have the movement from a couple of John's disciples — in fact from three of John's disciples, as you'll see — to Jesus. It says, and as he watched Jesus walk by — again, a problem with translations — it's emblépō: as he looked into Jesus. Previously, when it says he saw Jesus and said, "This is the Son of God," it's simply blépō, it's just "look." Here it's "look inside," and we'll see why that's important, because Jesus is going to do exactly the same to Peter. He looked into him, saw what was really there. And as he watched Jesus walk, as he looked into him, as he perceived, as his view penetrated Jesus walking by, he exclaimed, "Look, here is the Lamb of God." The two disciples heard him say this again. This is very important. Remember, the very beginning of John's Gospel is all about how he was a witness, and here he is literally witnessing before two witnesses. In other words, he's saying something so they can say, "Yes, he did say this," and they are the two witnesses who are themselves going to become witnesses. They are going to discover for themselves what he had told them, what he had pointed out. They're going to discover for themselves. The two disciples heard him say this and they follow Jesus. That's going to be the word that comes for disciples throughout: those who follow Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, "What are you looking for?" Not interesting — "who are you looking for?" — but "what are you looking for?" And if you like, that "what" is going to be the content of the Gospel. The answer to that question: what? What are you looking for? They said to him, "Rabbi," which translated means teacher, "where are you staying?" Again, a translation problem. The word menō is the same as the word "remain," "dwell." Remember, it's the same word which later we will have in John's Gospel where "in my Father's house there are many dwellings, there are many mansions." It's an absolutely key verb in John's Gospel. It doesn't mean exactly "where do you live?" but "where do you dwell, where do you remain?" And why is it so important? Because the day before, when John was bearing witness, he had seen the Holy Spirit come down upon Jesus and remain. It's the remaining. In other words, the dwelling of God is with men. Now the Holy Spirit dwells on Jesus. So dwelling with Jesus is going to be absolutely key. So they're saying, "Where do you dwell? Where are you staying? Where do you dwell?" He says to them, "Come and see." They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. So they have now dwelt in the court of the Lord, they have dwelt in the house of the Lord, for a day. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon, so almost the whole day — you know, night was considered to start at six; six was going to be the beginning of the next day — but they had already seen enough to have known that it's not merely because they have been told, but because they have seen. So one of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew. Simon Peter's brother. The other is not mentioned. Almost certainly we're talking about the beloved disciple, the one who only refers to himself obliquely, and yet whose presence as a witness from the beginning to the end is going to be absolutely central to John's Gospel, for very obvious reasons. So he first found his brother Simon and said to him — so Andrew has gone off and found his brother, and it said incidentally Simon here, it says Simon Peter's brother. It's actually Simon Peter's own brother. This is an idiomatic form to distinguish between cousins and "my gang, my brothers," which would have been normal ways of talking at the time, and a brother in the flesh, my own brother. So here we have Andrew, Simon Peter's own brother, and he first found his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah," which is translated "anointed": "We have found the Christos, the anointed one." John had pointed to his anointing, and now "we have found, we've seen for ourselves." He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him, and once again we have this wonderful phrase, this wonderful emblêpsis — he penetrates him with his regard. He saw the real him and said, "You are Simon the son of John. You are to be called Cephas," which is translated Peter, which is actually translated "Rocky." Let's have a look at this. This is really quite important for a variety of reasons. He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, "You are Simon the son of John." So this is probably not referring to Simon Peter's physical father, because he wouldn't be the son of John if it was a physical son, because Andrew his brother was also a son of John. So this is probably Simon as a disciple of John the Baptist that's being referred to — Simon Peter. So suggesting that John the beloved disciple, Andrew, and Peter were all disciples of John the Baptist. Two were witnesses to John having said, "This is the one," and one, Simon, wasn't. But his brother goes and says, "Come on, we found him." Jesus looks into him and says, "You are Simon, the son of John. You are to be called Cephas, Rocky." Peter, petros in Greek means stone; the Cephas in Aramaic means rock. It's not the kind of thing that you can throw at people — it's the kind of thing things are built on, the granite base, not the things liable for stoning. And it's interesting that he doesn't react at all. There is no response from Peter recorded. In fact, the amazing thing in John's Gospel is how Peter's vocation is created throughout the time of sharing Jesus's life, and is available at the end as someone who got something wrong. This is, if you like, the most fabulous… The thing for us in the Gospel is that this naming, this name which calls into being, we're actually going to accompany it being called into being in real time. And it's not a naming that makes someone right. It enables them to become righteous over time, by discovering how they're wrong, by being undone from within and given to be who they really are, which is what this receiving of a name from the Lord does to any of us. Anyhow, what I wanted to bring out in this particular Gospel is the intimacy of all this. But what we have in the prologue to John's Gospel and in the Feast of the Baptism are these incredibly rich and powerful signs: the Holy One of God, the Lamb of God, coming in, being present, the anointing with the Holy Spirit, the presence of the Lord here, the one who is in fact going to open up the new creation. And yet what we actually see is all that conducted in a series of very small, very deliberate interpersonal relationships with named others. Not very significant named others, but real human named others. This is not about an idea; this is not, if you like, let alone an ideology that's being talked about. This is a series of relationships that are being opened up by this presence amongst us. The Holy One of God come down to our level to bring about the fulfillment of creation. And it's at our level. The Holy Spirit has come down. Now seek the Lord while he may be found. When Jesus turns and says, "What do you seek?" — seek the Lord while he may be found. It's something of the contingency of time, and it's this which we're being asked to share in: in ordinary time, to realize that the Lord who may be found can be sought now, can and does speak our names to us, and allow us actually to become much more than we could imagine, as we become part of his manifestation into being of the new creation. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.