My Thoughts 05/01/2022

We meet Nathanael in today’s gospel. In Hebrew, his name translates “gift of God”. He expresses great scepticism when his friend invites him to meet Jesus. “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, the one about whom the prophets wrote: he is Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth”. Nathanael’s response is ‘Can anything good come from place?’ I love Philips reply “Come and See”. He is saying: “Come and meet him for yourself. Don’t let your prejudice prevent you from meeting someone who can change your life. “

Jesus uses this same words of invitation when John the Baptist pointed Jesus out to two of his disciples. They followed Jesus.  Jesus turned round, and seeing them following said, ‘What are you looking for?’ They answered, ‘Rabbi, where are you staying?’ He said to them, ‘Come and see’; so they went and saw where he was staying, and stayed with him that day.

When I was working in our diocese on implementing the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults RCIA (now known as the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults) we recommended a resource called “Come and See”. In the RCIA we were helping adults who were curious and wanted to know more about Jesus and Catholicism. As a parish community we should be open to encouraging others to meet Jesus. Jesus who is present not only in the Sacraments but also in the community itself.

Two things we can pray for today.

The first is that we pray for the grace not to judge others on the basis of where they came from or from any other source of prejudice. Secondly we pray is that we become people of hospitality inviting others to meet Jesus.