Weekly Reflection, Sunday, January 19, 2020
By: Emily Bruch
In today’s Gospel, we hear a story about John the Baptist’s interaction with Jesus just the day after his baptism. John the Baptist notices Jesus and he shares his experiences with his disciples. And then John invites his disciples to follow their new teacher. The passage goes on, following the same order of actions. Andrew and the other disciple notice something special about Jesus which leads Andrew to share his experiences with his brother, Simon, and to invite him to come and follow, too. As I read the gospel, I could not help but notice a pattern that was emerging….a pattern of three simple actions that caught my eye: notice, share and invite.
Just like John the Baptist and his disciples, we as Christians are called to follow this same pattern: to notice the work God is doing in our lives, to share his unconditional love with others, and to invite others to come and see.
I started to wonder how often in our lives we actually fulfill all three actions. It seems that in our modern world it is becoming more difficult for us to hear this call and to spread the Good News with others. But why? What exactly is holding us back? With our busy schedules and increasing distractions it is easy to forget to stop and notice God among us. As I questioned how we can break this cycle of busyness, one of the many wonderful sayings of Bob Hetherington came to mind: “PAY ATTENTION.”
And I think this is exactly where we need to start. We need to pay attention in order to notice all the work of God around us. We need to pay attention to notice the needs of our community. And we need to pay attention to notice what God is calling us to do.