Homily for June 7-8, 2008

Father Tom’s Homily
10th Sunday
June 8, 2008

The first words that Jesus speaks in John’s gospel are: “What do you want?” He is asking this question of two disciples of John the Baptist who were following him.
Here’s how the text of John’s gospel reads (chap 1, verses 35-40): “As John stood there with two of his disciples, Jesus passed, and John stared hard at him and said: ‘Look there is the lamb of God.’
“Hearing this, the two disciples followed Jesus. Jesus turned around, saw them following and said, ‘What do you want?’”
“…One of these two was Andrew.”

There are two points this important story is telling us. The first is suggested in the fact that only one of the disciples is mentioned by name (Andrew). The other unnamed disciple is meant to represent each one of us. The gospel text draws us into the story.
The second point is what Jesus asks us on meeting us. It’s what God asks us. “What do you want?” or “What are you looking for?”

We are created by God with a sense of needing something. Our hearts are yearning for something or someone. What or who is it that we need in order to find fulfillment?
Today’s readings tell us that God too is seeking something. It is this very desire that God has placed in our hearts as well. This should not surprise us. After all God has created us “…in his image and likeness.”
We come from the heart of God. In our own hearts can be found a deep sense of desire that is like to God’s.

Today’s first reading from the Prophet Hosea has God speaking the following; “It is love that I desire, not sacrifice.”
The gospel reading again has God speaking: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”
When we plunge deep enough into our hearts, we shall find what we seek more than anything else. Echoing God’s own desire, we yearn for love, we reach out for mercy.

Knowing our deepest desire requires the spiritual gift of discernment. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit who has been given to us as our intimate life companion.
We can be so confused by the noise and distractions of life that we may ignore our Spirit-companion. Desperately seeking the answer to our heart’s desire, we may be scrambling all over the place in response to that yearning we all have deep inside.

Black author, James Baldwin, describes some jazz musicians at work late into the night (in his book Listen to Love.)
“During the last set, the saxophone player took off on a terrific solo. He was a kid…who had discovered he could say it with his saxophone.
“He stood there shivering in the rags of his twenty-odd years, and screaming through the horn. ‘Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?” And again, “Do you love me?’

“The same phrase unbearably, endlessly, and variously was repeated with all the force the kid had…The question was terrible and real. “The boy was blowing with his lungs and guts out of his short past. ‘Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?’
“The other musicians on the stand stayed with him, cool and at a little distance, adding and questioning. “But each man knew that the boy was blowing for every one of them.”

Jesus asks each one of us. “What do you want?” And from deep within, we echo with the young sax player, “Do you love me?” This is what we want. Each of us wants to be loved, because we have been created by God for love.
Strangely and wondrously this deep desire reflects the image of God within us. Like God we yearn to be loved.

In the very last chapter of John’s gospel, in the last scene where Jesus is speaking, Jesus speaks to Peter, who earlier had denied that he had anything to do with Jesus.
Jesus says to Peter, “Do you love me?” He repeats this question three times to Peter. And we know he is asking this of each one of us. “Do you love me.”

Today’s first and third readings tell us what God desires. “I desire love…I desire mercy.” These are not different desires because the greatest manifestation of love is compassion or mercy.

We should notice that at the beginning of John’s gospel Jesus asks us “What do you want?” And at the end of the gospel, Jesus tells us what he wants. “Do you love me?”
He is teaching us the most important lesson in the whole catechism. Like God, we each want love.

God does not leave us out there on a limb without an answer to our yearning for love.
When we first encounter Jesus in that first chapter of John’s gospel, we hear him say, “What do you want?” The next thing Jesus says is an invitation to follow him. He says, “Come and see.”
In the company of Jesus, we realize that he is the answer to life’s most important question. Because Jesus is the mercy and love of God.
Jesus is God’s answer to our yearning for love and mercy.