Fr Kevin Kilgore

I remember growing up asking my mom, “How will I know when I’m in love?” She’d always say, “My son, you’ll just know.”

I’m sure many of us have fallen in love. Can you remember that moment when you had butterflies in your stomach and you said to yourself, “She’s perfect!” Or, “He’s Mr. Right!” Or, “That’s the person I’m going to marry!”

A similar feeling happened when I realized God was inviting me to become a priest. It was like a moment frozen in time; I knew it was right.

And if you’re still married, or if you were married for many years, I’m sure you’d agree that saying “yes” is something that you must do repeatedly; remaining faithful in a marriage is a daily decision, much like living as a faithful priest, or as a disciple.

***

 In today’s Gospel, Peter, Andrew, James, and John leave everything behind to follow Jesus. Maybe they didn’t have butterflies in their stomach, but they were converted on the spot.

So why were they able to drop their nets, leave their jobs and their families behind, and follow him? Were they in love? What was it about Jesus that moved them so deeply?

The simple answer is, “we don’t know.” But we can certainly speculate.

Jesus was a magnetic figure, filled with wisdom and power. His popularity spread quickly throughout the surrounding region as he performed miracles, instantly changing peoples’ lives.

Just as we “know” about celebrities, even if we’ve never met them, so these simple fishermen knew about Jesus before he set foot in their town.

Like many others, they admired Jesus from a distance, but they probably felt unworthy to approach him. Why would a man so powerful care about them – poor, uneducated, insignificant fishermen?

But they dreamed, they hoped, they might have even talked about Jesus together. Thus, when he issued the call, “Follow me,” they were READY.

***

But as we travel with the Apostles through the Gospels, they’ll remind us that saying “yes” to Jesus was a daily decision. It doesn’t happen only once. And it never got easier. For example, what was the last thing Peter said about Jesus before Jesus was crucified? “I do not know him…”

Discipleship is always a challenge. But we are always invited by Jesus to say yes, just like the Apostles.

Perhaps we remember that moment when he first called us like the disciples in Galilee, or maybe we’ve always been blessed with faith. But we must always be open to his voice.

It’s not enough to know what Jesus said at the Sea of Galilee. We must also be ready to hear his voice in our own hearts…. and act on it.

Often God’s voice comes in subtle ways. Maybe he’ll speak to us through a conversation with friend or a priest. Maybe he’ll speak to us through a line in a book, a letter from a friend, or a scene from a movie.

These promptings can be just as much of a call from Jesus as the one he issued at the Sea of Galilee. Like the Apostles, we must be ready to act.

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Where is Jesus asking me to drop my nets and follow him? What is he asking me to leave behind? Is it a hurtful relationship, a stressful job, or a pesky sin?

Or is he asking me to start a new chapter in my life, one that requires an ever-deeper sense of faith?

 ***

Jesus didn’t tell his disciples exactly what their future would bring, only that they would mysteriously fish for men. All that was clear to them was the call.

The same is true for us. We don’t know what the future holds, but the call from Jesus is clear. He says to us today, “Drop your nets and follow me.”

Are we ready to say yes?

We’ve all had the experience of looking for someone in a crowd…

Whether we’re picking a friend up from the airport, picking our children up after school, or scanning through old yearbooks, searching for someone we’ve lost contact with over the years…

We’ve all had some experience of looking for someone.

I’m reminded in particular of a cartoon I loved when I was a kid called, “Where’s Waldo?”

Waldo was always hidden in a crowd, much like a person at the airport, and your job was to find him. He always wore the same outfit: a red and white striped hat with a red ball on top, a few red and white striped shirt, rimmed glasses and blue jeans.

The problem is hundreds of other characters looked similar to him. If you were to find Waldo, then you had to know exactly who you were looking for.

***

Finding Waldo hidden in the crowd was meant to be difficult, but it’s supposed to be much easier to find Jesus, because HE COMES TO US. He jumps off the page, so to speak. 

In today’s Gospel, for example, Jesus passes by John and his disciples. We might call it a chance encounter. Many Jews were expecting God to visit them, but they didn’t know exactly when he would come or what he’d look like.

But John the Baptist knew who he was looking for. He recognized Jesus and pointed him out to his disciples, saying, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!”

***

Like John the Baptist, we all want to see Jesus, and we want to point him out to others. The question becomes, where do we find him?

Certainly, Jesus can be found in his Word and in the Eucharist…But there is one more place that we must look.

Turn to your left and to your right. Jesus can be found right there – hidden in the faces of our family, our friends, and our children…

It’s a simple but profound truth that we can often take for granted: Jesus is present in all of us. As Saint Paul says in our second reading, “Your bodies are members of Christ… [you] are a temple of the Holy Spirit.”.

If we look with eyes of faith, then we can see Jesus hidden in the face of our spouse who laughs at our jokes, or comforts us in our sorrow.

We can see Jesus hidden in the cheerful face of our children, who find peace in our embrace.

We can see Jesus hunched over in the weak, the aging, shivering in the vulnerable, the hungry, the rejected. Jesus is present in all of us.

The question is, “Are we looking for him in others?” Or are we somehow blinded to the divine presence in ourselves and in others?

***

God is love. Whenever we perform an act of love for someone else, God acts through us; God acts with us; God acts in us.

God wants to USE YOU to be his hands, his face, and his voice in the world. He wants you to reveal his love to others in the ordinary moments of life.

Be that listening ear, that shoulder to cry on, that affirming voice that assures your family that they are important and loved deeply…. by you and by God.

***

At times it seems easier to find Waldo hidden in a crowd or a friend at the airport, than it does to see Jesus.

But he is present in all of us, which is why we can truly say, “To love another person IS to see the face of God.”

Are you looking for him? If so, he’s hidden in the person next to you.

Growing up, there was a television show I used to watch called, “Are you afraid of the dark?”

Each episode began with kids sitting around a campfire at night and one of them would put a flashlight in front of their face and tell a scary story.

The stories always took place at night and there was always an evil character.

For example, one episode was called The Tale of the Night Nurse. In the story, a group of kids get locked inside a hospital overnight, and the ghost of an evil nurse haunts them! Will they survive?

You’ll have to watch the episode on YouTube or iTunes to find out!

***

But I will say this. Today’s Gospel sounds just like an episode of “Are you afraid of the dark?” It takes place at night and there is an evil character, King Herod, who wants to kill the baby Jesus!

The magi, on the other hand, want to worship Jesus. But if they are to find him, then they must journey through the countryside at night.

What makes that journey so dangerous is the fact that there were often robbers and wild animals hiding in the bushes, waiting for innocent travelers to pass by.

If the magi are to reach Jesus, then they must be alert.

However, they are not afraid – they are not afraid of the dark, of the robbers or the wild animals hiding in the bushes… The magi know that there is someone else at work in the night…

God is with them, leading them to Jesus by the light of a star.

And that makes all the difference. They are not alone.

***

At some point in life, we may feel like we are journeying through the night alone.

Maybe we’re unsure about our future…maybe we’ve been bullied at school… maybe we’re stuck looking for a job…or mourning the death of a loved one…

Maybe we’re struggling to stay committed in a marriage… we’re barely paying the bills…or we’re just overwhelmed by the stress of ordinary life….

Whatever our challenges may be, the magi remind us not to be afraid of the dark; rather, they tell us to look up and see the star.

They show us that God is with us, guiding us through the night.

***

Those episodes of “Are you afraid of the dark?” always have scary endings, as if evil wins in the end.

But that’s where our stories are different.

Like the magi, we have nothing to fear. God is with us, even in the night, guiding us ever closer to his kingdom.