He who is faithful in little will be faithful in much

“If God can work through me, he can work through anyone.” - St. Francis of Assisi

Gospel text (Jn 1,35-42):
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 he 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.
Then 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.

“What are you looking for?” Jesus asks John’s disciples.

It is the beginning of a new year; we are making our New Year’s resolutions. Jesus asks us, “What are you looking for?” The Gospel invites us to reflect on the most important resolution we will make for 2012: How we want our relationship with Jesus to grow.

When we are honest with ourselves, we can admit that there are certain very personal and often complex areas of our lives that still await integration with following Jesus. We hesitate to bring these areas to Jesus because we are afraid that he will not fully understand our struggle.

I suspect that the author of the Letter to the Hebrews dealt with similar fears until he finally realized that Jesus did understand human weakness and complexity, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who is tempted in every way that we are, yet never sinned.”

The deepest yearning of the human heart is the yearning to live in communion with God — yes, to live in communion even in the awkward and complex and often overlooked areas of our lives: careers, relationships, failures, unemployment, sexuality, loneliness, health, aging.
Jesus is inviting us -- as he invited his first disciples — to walk more closely with him in the complexity of our lives.

“Rabbi, where are you staying?” “Come and you will see.”