Come and See

Fr Richard Healey reflects on their own past feelings of distance from God despite church involvement. They discuss the importance of acknowledging God’s presence and responding to His call, drawing parallels to Samuel’s biblical story and the disciples’ encounters with Jesus. The speaker urges the congregation to recognize their desires for God and to invite others to experience His presence, emphasising the balance between resting in God’s presence and actively extending His invitation to others.

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(00:00:00) – When I was a kid, when I was growing up, you know, if a family was very actively involved in the church, but it didn’t seem like God was. You know, God seemed to be this distant figure, someone who was just around, vague, weird, but not directly involved in any of our lives. We said our prayers. We went to mass. We did all those kinds of things. But God himself didn’t really seem to be an active part of it. And I’m not sure where that kind of sense comes from. I’m sure our family wasn’t the only ones who had that experience, because when you read the scriptures, you encounter a God who is really quite active, a God who wants to be part of our lives from the very first moment of creation. You know, God is there, walking in the evening, in the still of the evening, walking with the man and the woman, walking with the human and life. And he’s calling and inviting us to be part of that reality in friendship with him, called to be part of a family, called to be part of a community in a nation.

(00:01:20) – And we get that so strongly in our first reading today. The line that is just before the reading from the lectionary tells us that the Word of God was not common in those days, and I think we’re familiar with that, to hear God’s word. I mean, I don’t think many of us have probably been kind of half asleep and and heard God call us by our name, as he does with Samuel today. So it’s no wonder that Samuel’s a little confused. And even the great prophet Eli is also somewhat confused, because it seems he’s not that familiar with the voice of God. And yet God is persistent. Did you count the number of times that the Lord calls Samuel by name today? Not just once or twice, eight times. Over the course of the reading, the Lord is inviting Samuel by name to respond. And sometimes I feel that God needs to be doing that, as so often with me as well. I’m a bit thick at times, a bit dense, a bit slow on the upstart.

(00:02:30) – And so I need that voice of the Lord inviting me, calling me again and again and again. You know, sometimes we think that if we do something and it doesn’t work well, we’ll just throw it away because it’s clearly not meant to be for me. But this reading also reminds us that sometimes we need to hear this invitation again and again. Or maybe you’ve invited someone to join you at church sometime and they’ve said no. And you thought, okay, well, I’ve asked them, so job done. I don’t have to ask them again. But if even God has to invite again and again and again, I don’t think we get let off the hook by one single invitation. In fact, studies indicate that people need to be invited again and again and again if they’re going to have any chance of responding to that invitation. The gospel gives us this beautiful illustration of that. Today we have these two disciples who have already been faithful to the call of God. They’re already responding in this case to John the Baptist.

(00:03:44) – They’ve been his disciples. We don’t know for how long, but they’ve been walking with him. They’ve been walking the dust of the rabbi, the the Jews say, and they’ve experienced all that he’s been able to offer to them. They’ve gone off with him down into the wilderness. They’ve been part of that great baptismal parties as people have come down to be washed and cleansed, their sins to start again, to have that opportunity to turn away from what they’ve been doing and to turn towards God. But the moment that he sees Jesus, the moment that he’s there on the scene, John is more than delighted to point these two disciples to him. Look, there is the Lamb of God. There is the one that we’ve been longing for and hoping for ever since the Book of Genesis. Ever since the very beginning of this story, people have been longing for the one who will be the perfect sacrifice, the one who will be able to offer this new life and new possibilities. And so John points them out, and he’s not annoyed that these two disciples stop following him and start following after Jesus because he knows who he is.

(00:04:57) – He knows the truth, and he will. Readily point anyone that he can to the way of Jesus, the way of life. So these two disciples are already discovering what it is to point someone to the truth. They’re already beginning to understand what this is about. And so once they begin to just simply walk this, this curiosity that they have and they begin to follow after Jesus, what does he do? He turns around and sees them. And the question that Jesus asked these two disciples is so fantastic, what do you want? It’s such a good question to hear the Lord ask us, what do you want? You know, what do you really want? Why are you here this morning? Okay, it’s a rainy day, so you don’t get too many choices. You know, you can go to the movies and that’s about it. That’s a plug for the cinemas. But, um, what do you want? It’s a question that we need to really address at times in our lives. What do we really want? What’s the thing that’s driving me? What’s the thing that’s holding me? What’s the thing that’s sustaining me today? What do you want? And the question that they then ask the Lord is also wonderful.

(00:06:19) – Rabbi. Master, where do you live? Where are you staying? And the Greek that’s behind that is actually quite lovely, because it’s the sense of where do you find your peace? Where do you rest? Where is the source of all that you are? And so much more than just, you know, a physical place. It’s a sense of the disciples or the potential disciples asking Jesus, you know, show us how to find that same place, the centre point of our lives. And so he says, well, come and see. Come and see. It’s such a wonderful invitation that the Lord is always offering to us. Come and find this life yourself. Don’t trust anybody else. Don’t take anyone else’s word for it. You come and see. Come and dwell. Come and live. Come and rest. Come and remain in my life and in my goodness. That’s when everything begins to change for us. That’s when we can begin to discover this personal possibility of life with God. When it’s not just somebody else that we’re relying on some vague word, but this invitation to come and see ourselves.

(00:07:36) – And for Andrew, at least we know that this was such a transformative moment. What is the first thing he does? Early the next morning? I hate those lines. I’m such not a morning person. I don’t like the morning at all. And so being told that these are the kinds of things that Jesus will go off in early in the morning, long before daylight, I’m like, come on, Jesus, just go back to bed, you know? I remember at seminary, we used to say, if the Lord wanted to have early morning mass, he would have had the last breakfast, but he had the Last Supper. So this is clearly an indication that we should be having things at night, not early in the morning. But anyway, I digress. Early in the morning, Andrew goes and finds his brother Simon Peter, the first leader, the first pope in our church. He’s not called in John’s gospel by Jesus directly. He relies on somebody else to come and invite him. Somebody else to call him by name is so often it’s not just this personal invitation that we receive directly from God.

(00:08:43) – We need community. We need other people to point us towards the way of Jesus. We need other people to invite us into this life. You know what would happen in our church if Andrew didn’t take the courage to do that? What would have happened if Andrew hadn’t actually gone that day and invited his brother Simon to come and meet the one that I think is the Messiah. How different would our church be? How often do we sit back and kind of think, oh no, no, no, I won’t worry about that. But we’re invited today to come and see, to come and encounter the Lord for ourselves, but also to have the courage to go and invite, to go and share that gift and that grace with those around us. I invite you now just to think about one person, to think of someone that is in your life who perhaps isn’t part of our faith community, isn’t part of this relationship with God. And can you invite them? Can you share your life and your goodness? Can you first love them into this moment? Can you allow them to experience that grace of encountering the living God we’re invited to do today? Let’s come and see.

(00:09:59) – Indeed. Let’s come and rest in the presence of God. But it’s also go and tell, go and invite. And it probably won’t happen the first time. It might take the eight times that Samuel was called before this person responds, but take courage in that as well. God is always inviting. God is always calling us more deeply into life today.