My Thoughts on 04/01/2021

We are all familiar with the saying “an Englishman‘s home is his castle.” One suggested origin of this phrase is that it is from the 17th century and is based on a legal precept in England that no one may enter a home without a clear invitation so that whatever the size of your house (or hovel!) it became your impenetrable ‘castle’.

In my early days as a priest not everyone I called on would necessarily invite me in. I would chat with them on the doorstep. There are various reasons people might keep a visitor on the doorstep. The house might be very untidy. Our homes can tell others something about who we are. We might not want to reveal too much of ourself to another.

I thought of this while reading today’s gospel from John. The two disciples of St John the Baptist followed Jesus after John had pointed to him saying, “Look, there is the lamb of God.” Jesus asked them “What do you want?” And they replied “Where do you live?” He said, “Come and See” . They so went and saw where he lives and stayed with him the rest of the day. I often imagine what was the conversation between them when they were together. The result of this meeting was that one of them, Andrew, became his disciple and invited his brother Simon to meet Jesus.

Perhaps in our prayer we could imagine Jesus turning to us and asking,”what do you want?”

If we replied, “Where do you live?” we would be asking to come to know Jesus more intimately. Jesus says to me , “Come and See. Come and spend the day with me.” I wonder what our conversation would like?