Come and see

Each call "from God is individual, because he does not do things in series". Christ does not leave "a business card", but an invitation "to a meeting". Pope Francis affirms this at the Angelus of January 17, 2021. The Gospel presents "the meeting of Jesus with his first disciples". The scene takes place “by the Jordan River, the day after Jesus' baptism.
It is John the Baptist himself who indicates the Messiah to two of them with these words: "Behold the Lamb of God!". And those two, trusting the testimony of the Baptist, go after Jesus. He realizes it and asks: "What are you looking for?", And they ask him: "Master, where are you staying?" ». Christ "does not answer:" I live in Capernaum or in Nazareth ", but says:" Come and see ". Not a business card, but an invitation to a meeting. The two follow him and that afternoon they stay with him ».

Suddenly “they discover that, while it is evening around them, in them, in their hearts, the light explodes that only God can give. One thing that attracts attention: one of them, sixty years later, or perhaps more, wrote in the Gospel: "It was about four in the afternoon," wrote the time. And this is something that makes us think: every authentic encounter with Jesus remains in the living memory, it is never forgotten ». Many appointments or encounters "you forget them, but the true encounter with Jesus always remains".

Then, when “they leave this encounter and return to their brothers, this joy, this light overflows from their hearts like a raging river. One of the two, Andrew, tells his brother Simon - that Jesus will call Peter when he meets him - "We have found the Messiah" ».

Bergoglio exhorts us to stop «for a moment on this experience of the encounter with Christ who calls to be with him. Each call of God is an initiative of his love for him. He is always the one who takes the initiative, he calls you ». The first call «of God is that to life, with which he constitutes us as persons; it is an individual call, because God does not do things in series. Then God calls to faith and to be part of his family, as children of God. Finally, God calls to a particular state of life: to give ourselves in the way of marriage, in that of the priesthood or consecrated life ". They are different ways of carrying out “God's plan, the one he has for each of us, which is always a plan of love. God always calls. And the greatest joy for every believer is to respond to this call ”.

The Pope observes: "Faced with the call of the Lord, which can reach us in a thousand ways also through people, happy and sad events, at times our attitude can be one of rejection and fear, because we consider it too demanding and uncomfortable:" Oh I won't make it, better not, better a more peaceful life ... God there, I'm here ". But God's call is love, we must try to find the love that is behind every call, and we respond to it only with love ».

Domenico Agasso Jr.
NP February 2021