LY 2021 Day 2

This year, more than ever, I am ready to focus on this being the beginning of Liturgical  Year 2021.  And on this second day we celebrate St. Andrew.

When we think of the apostles, we often say “they left everything to follow Jesus,” which is true. But St. Matthew in his gospel describes it differently. 

About Peter and Andrew he says, 

At once they left their nets and followed him.

Regarding James and John, he writes,

Immediate they left their boat and father and followed him. 

Each pair is described as leaving something different.

Perhaps now, on this second day of the new year, each of us needs to ask ourselves, “What do I need to leave so that I can follow Jesus more fully this year?”

The two commands

When I was a child, I could never understand my mother’s ability to doze off while watching TV, even while watching something in which she was really interested. I have now become my mother. 

. In St. Mark’s gospel we are repeatedly given two commands.

Γρηγορείτε and βλέπετε 

The first of these words refers precisely to not letting ourselves doze off, to staying wake. The older we are, the harder this becomes, the more effort required. We sit still and we doze off, not just physically but spiritually. 

When we are younger we are filled with hopes and ambitions that drive us forward. We have a sense of becoming. We are occupied with questions like “who will I become?” and “what will I do with my life?”  

As we turn the corner of middle age those questions fall away and we can, unfortunately, start to settle into who we are. We lose interest in changing. We doze off into spiritual complacency. We stop striving to be better. We drift on the current of our lives. 

Today’s gospel demands that we wake up. Until the last day of our earthly lives, we are called to be active, to choose, to strive toward holiness. 

The second command is “to watch”, “to look at”. It is not simply about having something passively in front of our eyes.  We are called to really look, to examine, to study. What are we looking for? — the signs of the Kingdom of God. 

As we begin this Advent Season, can we open our eyes to see the signs of the presence of God? Can we see them in our brothers and sisters? Can we see them in the beauty and majesty of God’s creation? Can we see the presence of Christ offered to us in the Eucharist?

Wake up and look! And if we look we will see Emmanuel, God with us. 

The Under-appreciated Church

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. John Lateran, Lateran being the name of the hill on which it is located in the city of Rome. It is, and has been for most of two millennia, the Cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope.  (Not St. Peter’s ). 

It’s actual name is Cathedral of the Most Holy Savior and of Saints John the Baptist and the Evangelist in the Lateran. Inside are 12 enormous and magnificent statues of the 12 apostles, who form the foundation on which Christ builds His Church. 

Over the doors is inscribed SACROS LATERAN ECCLES OMNIUM VRBIS ET ORBIS ECCLESIARVM MATER ET CAPUT" ("Most Holy Lateran Church, mother and head of all the churches in the city and the world"). 

We need these magnificent, historic buildings. They soar to the sky and remind us, not of who we are, but who we are called to be. 

Today the Office of Readings gives us chapter 2 of the First Letter of St. Peter,

Strip away everything vicious, everything deceitful; pretenses, jealousies, and disparaging remarks of any kind. 

Could any words be more apt for the moment in which we are living?

Today, as we celebrate this feast, let us focus our hearts on those original 12 called to proclaim the gospel to the world. And should there be a moment when we are tempted to think ill of another, let us recall the command of St. Peter, our first Pope.