Come and See

John was standing with two of his disciples,

and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said,

"Behold, the Lamb of God."

The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, "What are you looking for?"

They said to him, "Rabbi" — which translated means Teacher —, "where are you staying?" He said to them, "Come, and you will see." So they went and saw where Jesus was staying, and they stayed with him that day.

It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus. He first found his own brother Simon and told him, "We have found the Messiah" — which is translated Christ —.  hen he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Cephas" — which is translated, Peter.

Sometimes, nuances get lost when you translate from one language to another and this happens twice in this passage from John (John 1: 35 - 42).  At the very beginning, we see that two of the soon to be apostles were actually working with and following John the Baptist.  John knew who Jesus was and when he saw his cousin pass he did what was probably very hard for him to do, he pointed out Jesus and told his two loyal followers that passing right in front of them was the Lamb of God, which the two would have understood as the Messiah.  Who had need of John the Baptist when the actual Messiah was passing by. They caught up with Jesus and He turned around and asked them what they were looking for, The two do not seem to answer the question directly because they ask Him, "Where are you staying."  In the Aramaic language, the words used to convey their thoughts say a bit more than what is apparently said.  We would translate what they have said as, "What manner of a man are you? What do you believe."  The answer makes perfect sense in either case because they are invited to "come and see." 

Many of us were born into the faith and we were taught from an early age who Jesus was and what he was about. As children, we accepted what was told to us because what we heard came from trusted sources such as parents and teachers.  Each of us, one day, had to finally make what we heard our own and either accept as adults what we had learned about Jesus or reject the teachings as flights of fancy. If you are reading this, most likely, you decided that following Jesus was the way to go.  Good choice! 

When we accepted Jesus and His teachings, we had received teachings that were born in ancient times and had developed into the doctrine taught by the Church and guaranteed to be true by the Holy Spirit that we have today.  It was not so for the soon to be apostles. Galilee as Pilate says in Jesus Christ Superstar "produced messiahs by the sack full."  One by one they would appear only to prove themselves to be deluded by mental disease or defect or malignant con men looking to score some much-needed money from the fools of the region. John the Baptist sent his two best men away to follow Jesus. John was the catalyst that propelled them and was a source that had much credibility with the two and so they left the Baptist to walk with Jesus. Andrew for his part brought Peter to Jesus. Peter accepted Andrew as a trusted source and therefore, Peter too threw in his lot to follow Jesus. 

We too have a trusted source that started us on our way to trust Jesus and we too have a duty to bring others to Christ. Our evangelization of others can take many forms.  We do not have to gather up our Bible and thump it loudly while standing on a street corner shouting out the Gospel truth.  We could do this but such people are regarded with suspicion by their intended audience and I suspect that their attempt at being fishers of men do not meet with many victories.  I believe that we can convert more people using the oldest technique in the world and that is loving the crowd into the realization that Jesus is Lord.  

How though do we go about this?  We use gentle voices and loving hearts and we treat others just as we would want to be treated ourselves. Attraction is a better motivator that compulsion.   So this week, be an example of compassion, love, and patience to those around you.  Attract people to you so that they might see Jesus in you and wonder why you glow with such happiness. 

God bless you and please remember the poor souls in purgatory.