Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Is 49:3, 5-6
1 Cor 1:1-3

Jn 1:29-34

We would be loathe to admit it, but most of us live relatively insular lives. Think about it, yes many of us are educated, we read, we have a wide circle of friends, and some of them may even have slightly different points of view than we have. Yet we do the same things, go to the same places, speak with the same people, rarely stretching the boundaries of our relationships. Even more, we do not very often stretch the boundaries of our beliefs. Within that insular world, within the boundaries of those beliefs, we may even stand out, we may even be an example to all those around us to are in basically the same place we are. Is, that enough, or do we need to be more? The Baptist saw Jesus coming and proclaimed, Behold, the Lamb of God. John tells us clearly, that this is the one for whom the people of Israel had been waiting, the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who would save the people of Israel. He was, after all, a Jewish messiah, right, meant to save God’s chosen people. He is that indeed, but is that all, or is that not enough? In the first reading God says, It is too little, the LORD says, for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel; I will make you a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. I will make you a light to all the nations, all the people of the earth, because salvation is for all people, we are all chosen by God. Jesus goes beyond the insular world of his time and place, beyond a particular people, Jesus is for all people. Jesus came to do God’s will, and that will was to save all, not just a few, not only a certain group, but all people, all people beyond that insular world Jesus entered. We too are called, we are asked to do the will of God. Is it enough to attempt to do that will, to live as God asks, only within the insular boundaries of the world we have entered? When we say here I am Lord, I come to do your will, we are called out of that insular world, we are called to stretch beyond who we are, to become who God asks us to be. It’s not easy, we may not even be sure how, but if we say Here I am Lord, and allow ourselves to be stretched, we just might be that light that helps spread God’s salvation to the nations.
Deacon John
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jan. 16, 2011