Jesus told Andrew and the other disciple in today’s Gospel to “come and see”. Such a profound invitation and a sense of momentous event in today’s Gospel. We hear the exact time when those two disciples of John the Baptist first met Jesus: the tenth hour, about four o’clock in the afternoon. An unimportant trivial fact perhaps, but an indication of just how important, how life changing that the first encounter was for Andrew and the other disciple. Their lives changed so much that they can tell us exactly when and where it happened.
But did you notice that the Gospel doesn’t tell us the content of that encounter? It doesn’t tell us what Jesus said to Andrew and the other unnamed disciple, nor what questions they asked. It doesn’t describe Jesus or where he was living. The Gospel reading simply says that they accepted his invitation to come and see, and that they stayed with him for the rest of the day. Perhaps the conversation was too personal to be recorded, or perhaps a written account would not be able to convey its effect or the power of the presence of Jesus. Certainly, the Lord must have had a profound effect: the two disciples left John the Baptist to become followers of Jesus, and Andrew wasted no time in telling his brother Simon Peter, “We have found the Messiah.”
Here’s another thought. Perhaps, too, the Gospel writer realises that an encounter with the Lord must be a unique event, something that each potential follower has to experience personally. The Lord issues an invitation, but it is up to us to respond. We have to be in a state of readiness, open to hear the Lord’s call. Samuel in our first reading was already living in the Lord’s sanctuary – in the right place to hear the call. And the two disciples were already followers of John the Baptist – predisposed to the coming of the Messiah. When the call came, they responded without hesitation.
As Christians, we believe that we have been called, and that we are following the Lord, however falteringly or hesitantly. It is not just priests who are called, every Christian has a vocation. We are all called to a real personal meeting with the Lord, and not simply to go by what others have told us about him. Whether or not we can pinpoint an exact moment when we first encountered him like the two disciples in today’s Gospel, we are called to allow our relationship with Christ to change our lives irrevocably. By spending time in his presence, we learn to see as he sees, act and speak as he does.
The call to follow, the invitation to spend time with the Lord, to come and see, is never a once-and-for-all experience. It is a daily event. Perhaps today the Lord’s call to us most persistently in the faces of those in need: in the faces of those who are poor; those who are homeless; the victims of war, violence or pandemic; those who are sick and dying; those who are lonely and unloved. When we can see and serve the Lord in these people, we can know that we really have become his disciples.
