Thursday, January 5, 2017

Discernment: Come and See

Discernment:  In today’s Gospel, Jesus goes to Galilee and there finds Philip. Jesus says to Philip: “Follow me.”   Philip, in turn, finds Nathaniel and says to him: “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth. Nathaniel asks Philip: “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip does not argue but says: “Come and see.”  Jesus sees Nathaniel coming “toward him and said of him, “Here is a true child of Israel. There I no duplicity in him.”  “How do you know me,” Nathaniel asks.  “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.” “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel,” Nathaniel responds.  “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this…Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man.”

Just as Jesus found Philip, so, too, does He find you.  He says to you, as He said to Philip: “Follow me.”  What do you need to leave behind to be truly following the Lord? And once you have begun in earnest to live by faith and grow in your relationship with the Lord, whom, to you invite to do the same?   Do you, like Nathaniel,  when invited to meet Jesus, ”son of Joseph, from Nazareth,” ask:  “What good can come out of Nazareth?”    Furthermore, if invited to become a woman religious, a man religious, a priest, a deacon, do you  ask:  “What good is there in entering religious life, in studying to become a priest, a deacon?”  Come and see! Take that next step and pay attention to that small, persistent inner voice inviting you to consecrate your life solely to the Lord.


Perhaps you do not realize that you “will see greater things...” if you trust the Lord totally in His call to you, in His invitation to follow Him unreservedly as a woman/man religious, as a priest, as a deacon.  Remember that could be the same if God is calling you to sacramental marriage or to the single lifestyle.

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