Second Sunday in Ordinary Time 2018

As we celebrate the Word of God that has been proclaimed to us, God is calling the prophet Samuel, the first apostles Andrew and Peter, and you and I.  Yes, the call of God is given to us as surely as it was given to Samuel and Andrew and Peter.  The call of God, our vocation, is given to each and every one of us.
 
I invite you to listen again to the dialogue of Jesus with the first disciples.  Jesus, sensing that two people were following him, asked:  “What are you looking for?”  They responded:  “Rabbi, where do you live.”  Jesus simply responds:  “Come and See.”

This call of the first disciples invites us to reflect on the call of God in our own lives.  Indeed, Jesus asks us what are we looking for?   May we too respond:  Master, where do you live?  What are you all about?  Then we receive the invitation to COME AND SEE.
I would like to ask you rhetorically this question for your prayerful reflection:  “Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus?  Do you know the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior?”  If this is a puzzling question for you, I don’t blame you.  This is an unusual Catholic question.

  This typically is a question evangelicals ask of each other.  Catholics, on the other hand, are called to live a life of morality, of responsibility, of a Gospel way of living.  To do the right thing.

But the invitation given to the first disciples is to COME AND SEE.  Come and See what life will be like when lived in relationship with Jesus and in relationship with the all the disciples of Jesus.  Come and See if the Gospel stories connect with your spirit and your way of looking at life.  Come and See if your relationships in the Church – the disciples of Jesus – allow you to love and be loved in life-giving ways.  Our relationship with Jesus to which we are called demands an adult commitment to discipleship.  We are to embark on our journey of faith.  All of our actions are to flow out of our relationship with God.
 
As we ready ourselves to celebrate Stewardship Commitment Sunday next weekend , Jesus is inviting to Come and See if we can embrace a spirituality of stewardship as part of our discipleship of Christ Jesus.

What is the spirituality of stewardship all about?  Very simply, the Lord calls us to share what we have been given in the service of others.  This is how Jesus lived his life.  Jesus invites to Come and See if we too can die to self-centeredness and live an other-centered life to help others.  Stewardship is central to a Gospel way of living.

The way we live a God-centered life is when we live our lives as Jesus did.  The call to discipleship is the call to Come and See what it means to share in the mission and the ministry of Jesus.  The compassion of Jesus, the unconditional love for Jesus for all, His willingness to forgive – even those who have betrayed him, His willing to lay his life in the service of others --- all of this is what Jesus invited his first disciples to COME AND SEE.
So we ask ourselves, does our spirituality have to invade the way we spend our hear-earned money?  Isn’t it enough to pray and keep the rules with a life of morality?  We need to hear this part of our relationship with Jesus.   How we use the money in our wallet or in our purse is an essential part of our spirituality.  In fact, there is no area of your life that is excluded from our spirituality.

Our stewardship of treasure is our opportunity to share what we have been given with others.  May we always be mindful of the words of Jesus:  “As often as you have done this to the least of my brothers and sisters, you have done to me.”

Personally, I intend as I have done in other years to increase my financial offering to the parish in handing in my stewardship commitment pledge card.  While you do not see me dropping my envelope in the collection basket, I assure you I give electronically each and every month in the support of our parish ministries.  I don’t say this to impress you.  I am just aware I need to walk my talk and seek to live my life in gratitude for God’s many, many blessings.
 
Further on a personal note, I have no intention to retire as the pastor of St. Joseph’s.  There is nothing I would rather do than serve as your pastor.

What I have said before is a strong conviction of mine.  You will never regret being generous.  You have received in the mail a pledge card in which we ask that you place it in the second collection next weekend on Stewardship Commitment Sunday.

I suggest that today’s Scripture readings alert us to the ways we can recognize the call of God in our lives.  The first Scripture reading describes the call of God in the life of Samuel.  “Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was.  The Lord called to Samuel, who answered, “Here I am.”  Samuel ran to Eli and said: “Here I am. You called me.”  “I did not call you,” Eli said.  “Go back to sleep.”  This happened three times. Then Eli understood the Lord was calling the young Samuel.  He then told Samuel to go to sleep and the next time he was to reply:  “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”

We too need people to recognize the call of God in our lives.  Who for you is the prophet Eli who helps you to recognize the call of God in your life?  I would love for us to have a dialogue on identifying the soul friends in our lives who have raised our awareness of the presence in our lives.

I firmly believe in the connection in how we respond to the call of God in our life, in the way we are invited to COME AND SEE what discipleship of the Lord Jesus is all about and the spirituality of stewardship.  We are called to be good stewards of the giftedness we have been given.  What we have is only on loan to us.  Our life in Christ calls us to let go of our comfort zones and to enter into the mission and ministry of Jesus – giving our time, talent, and treasure for the building of the Body of Christ.