We can probably all think of people who opened doors for us in life. Perhaps at a crucial moment in our lives, perhaps sometime in the past year, they pointed us in the right direction. They were an influence for good on us; maybe they shared with us some gift they possessed, or allowed us to benefit from an experience they had or some discovery they made. We appreciate these people because they had the freedom and the generosity to give something worthwhile away for the benefit of others, rather than keeping it to themselves.
That is how John Baptist is portrayed in the Gospel reading this Sunday. He had come to recognize Jesus as a very special revelation (or “epiphany”) of God’s love. Far from keeping that discovery to himself, John shared it with his own disciples, even though he knew that in doing so he was going to lose them to Jesus. He pointed two of his disciples in the direction of Jesus. He opened a door for them. A short while later, one of those two disciples, Andrew, did for his brother, Simon, what John the Baptist had done for him. He led his brother to Jesus. Each in different ways, pointed others in the right direction, led others to the One who is the source of life.
Again, we can probably all identify a John the Baptist or an Andrew in our own lives; people who, in some way or another, brought us to the Lord, or helped us to recognize and receive the Lord who was present to us. We might think first of our own parents who brought us to the baptismal font as infants. Then, in the following years, they may helped us to grow in our relationship the Lord into whom we had been baptized, bringing us to the church, praying with us, reading stories from the Gospels to us, teaching us Gospel values, placing an image of the Lord or of one of the saints in our room, helping us to prepare for the sacraments of the Eucharist and Confirmation. If we were fortunate, we might have also had a good religion teacher at school or in the parish or even a good friend who took us a step further in our relationship with the Lord, who enabled us to “come and see,” in the words of the Gospel today (John 1,35-42).
At any time in our adult life we can meet a John the Baptist (or be a John the Baptist!) who says, “Look, there is the Lamb of God,” and that can happen to us over and over again, right up to the very end of our lives. The Lord never ceases to call us through others into a deeper relationship with Himself and, again, never ceases to call us to be a John the Baptist or an Andrew for somebody else. He may call us to share our faith in some simple way, to open a door to the Lord for others. Our response to such a call can take many different forms. As we prepare for Sunday’s Mass, let us ponder the many ways Jesus draws us to Himself, and also to the ways that He is calling us to draw others to Himself.
Let us pray. Almighty God, by whose providence your servant John the Baptist was born and was sent to prepare the way of your Son, lead us, after his example, to speak the truth, to give witness to your love, and to guide others along the path of your peace. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
