2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time: Finding Our Deepest Longings in the Gospel
We now begin what the Church calls “Ordinary Time.” Christmas season is over. During Ordinary Time, we focus on Jesus’ ministry.
Our readings today touch on the theme of vocation—God’s calling. Calling or vocation is an important reality of our lives. Each of us has a calling which can be found in our deepest longings and desires. If we truly listen, in our deepest longings and desires, is where we can meet God.
In the First Reading, Samuel, who was still young, was waked up by hearing his name called in the night. He thought that the person calling him was Eli, the old priest whom Samuel served. But Samuel was wrong in thinking this. It was the Lord calling.
It took three times of God calling before the experienced old priest Eli tumbled to the fact that it was God who was calling Samuel. The key moment is when Samuel learns to open himself up to God’s message: “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” It took four times of God’s calling before Samuel finally answered by saying, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”
The moral of this story is that the voice of God can be anywhere, in any guise. God can use events, even the most unexpected events and other people to call us. God calls us a number of times in our lives. It is the willingness to listen, to trust and obey, that makes the Lord known. Many times, the Lord calls and speaks in our daily lives, but we do not recognize and hear him, because we fail to listen.
In the gospel we hear of another vocation story, the call of the apostles. Jesus challenges the two disciples of John the Baptist with the question: “What are you looking for?”
Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, “What are you looking for?”
The question of Jesus strikes a very deep chord in our journey in life. All throughout our lives, we have been asking: “What am I looking for? What’s my aim and goal? What am I really trying to get out of life? Have we found what we’ve been looking for” Guess what? God knows our deepest desires, and God wish to satisfy the desire that is most precious in us. The gospel of Jesus that Jesus proclaimed tries to respond to our deepest longings and aspirations. God wishes to connect our longings and aspirations with the gospel of Jesus. How do I experience Jesus’ gospel meeting my desires in life?
They said to him, “Rabbi”
“where are you staying?”
In trying to discern the answer to what we are looking for in life, usually, our first concern is our own security and needs. What can I get out of a particular calling? Will I be secure, comfortable and safe, if we try to follow a certain calling, let alone Jesus’ invitation? This was how the first disciples reacted to Jesus’ invitation. Their first concern to Jesus was understably about their economic and security needs: Where will we live? What will we eat? How can we satisfy our own needs and security?
He said to them, “Come, and you will see.”
Jesus’ reply challenged the disciples’ economic and personal security concerns. Jesus did not take for granted the disciples’ personal economic and security concerns and invited the disciples to come with him. Jesus will take care of the disciples needs while following him.
Jesus, however, asked them to learn a new way of seeing. Seeing in the gospel of John is another term for believing. Believing is to have a new outlook in life according to the gospel of Jesus. In other word, the gospel of Jesus is an invitation for a radical change or a new way of thinking and doing. The new perspective of the gospel will give them greater joy and meaning and satisfies their quest about what they are looking in life.
In the midst of our deepest desires and longings may we truly hear God’s calling towards a richer and fuller meaning of life. Let us truly believe in the fulfillment of our longings and aspiration by responding positively to the new way of seeing and living that the gospel of Jesus invites us to.
I am passionate about the intersection between new media and technology. I continue to research and apply new media in theology and vice-versa. I am also a fan of Our Mother of Perpetual Help and her continuing relevance in today’s digital world.
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