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A WORD FROM THE PASTOR
Seekers to Pointers
One day a man called a church office by mistake. The secretary happened to be distracted at the time, and did not answer the phone in the usual fashion. She just said "Hello." The man said, "I want to order one pound of Barbecue, two pints of Cole slaw, and a dozen hush puppies." The secretary said, "Wait a minute, sir. We are not a food service operation. You must have the wrong number." The man hesitated a moment and then asked, "What do you sell? What business are you in?" That's not a fair question to ask a church secretary!
The church neither sells nor does business; but has a mission. What is the church's mission? What is our principal message or service or goal? While all our tasks are important, none of them is our central mission. The church is here, the priest is here, a church office is here, first and foremost, to declare this Good News: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came down from heaven as the "Lamb of God" to save us from our sins by his sacrificial death on the cross.
In today's gospel, John the Baptist identified Jesus as "Lamb of God" to two of his disciples (Andrew and John). Jesus is the one who will play the role of the sacrificial lambs offered in the temple. Jesus, the covenant in person, will be a sacrificed victim as well. While the two young men followed Jesus, he questioned them, "What are you looking for?" Many people go through life not really knowing what they most fundamentally want, and accordingly, they drift. But the disciples knew what they wanted.
They asked, "Where are you staying?" Jesus invited them to "come and see." They accepted the invitation of Jesus and went and stayed with him. The outcome is: they were changed from seekers to pointers - they pointed Jesus out to others. The next day Andrew found his brother Peter and brought him to Jesus. Our Faith is validated and grows as we "come and see", as Andrew and John experienced. If we also do, then we come to know and become pointers of Jesus.
How does this happen? Looking into the eyes of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, we see the person we want to become - the person God created us to be. I think that's what happened to Andrew and John. When we know Jesus is the Lamb of God and follow him and be with him we also can become pointers of Jesus.
Two questions for you to ponder over:
- What am I looking for?
- Am I only a seeker or pointer also?
In the Service of the Lord,
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