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Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
January 25, 2015
Church of Saint Ignatius Loyola, Chestnut Hill MA
Joseph M. O’Keefe, S.J.
“It was love at first sight.”
Many people, from Mozart to Madonna, have written songs about love at first
sight. The Greeks, the Romans, and Shakespeare wrote plays about it. It has been
the topic of movies, and novels, and poetry. Perhaps you have had an encounter with
a person who has changed your life forever. Perhaps, for some of you, that person
is sitting next to you right here.
In the Spiritual Exercises (no. 175), Saint Ignatius describes three times when
a correct and good choice of a way of life may be made. The first time is a “love at
first sight” experience when, Ignatius wrote, “God our Lord so moves and attracts
the will that a devout soul without hesitation, or the possibility of hesitation, follows
what has been manifested to it.” Not all relationships begin with someone falling
“head over heels.” But in today's gospel Simon and Andrew, James and John, had the
sort of experience Ignatius described. Like Matthew in Capernaum, or like Paul on
the road to Damascus, one encounter with Jesus changed their lives forever. What
was it about Jesus that was so compelling that these four man dropped everything at
the first encounter, leaving their boats, leaving their livelihood, leaving their
security, and leaving poor old Zebedee holding the bag or, in this case, the nets?
Not everyone falls in love at first sight, as Saint Ignatius acknowledged in the
Spiritual Exercises. What about you? What have been the contours of your faith
journey? Perhaps your faith has grown slowly over the years, though tested by
doubts and disappointments. Perhaps you are going through times of darkness and
desolation, but remain resolute nonetheless. Perhaps you are experiencing a
rekindled faith, with the consolations and blessings that experience carries. In any
event, I ask you to reflect on these questions: Why do you believe that Jesus is the
Son of God? What is it about Jesus that attracts you? What is it about Him that
brings you to worship in the Catholic community when so many others have turned
away? What is it about Jesus that brings you to repent when you stray, like the
people of Nineveh in the colorful story of Jonah? What is it about Jesus that is so
compelling that you choose to embrace the Christian way of life, with its demands
and its challenges? What is it that leads you to fall in love with the Lord? And, in
the language of the good Xaverian brothers who taught me in high school, what is it
that leads you to fall in love not only with God, but to fall in love with the service of
God? What is it that leads you to proclaim, by your words and by your actions, that
the Kingdom of God is indeed at hand? The call of Christ is not a “one and done”
kind of thing. Jesus invites us to love Him more dearly and follow him more nearly,
day after day, month after month, year after year. And when Christ calls, do you,
and will you, say yes, like Simon and Andrew, James and John?
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As you all know, love is never a one-way street. Love is, by its very nature,
reciprocal. When I follow Jesus, like the apostles in today’s gospels, I not only
commit myself to love Him, but I allow Him to love me. Last year, Pope Francis
remarked, “It is more difficult to let God love us than to love Him! The best way to
love Him in return is to open our hearts and let Him love us. Let Him draw close to
us and feel Him close to us. This is really very difficult. We return the love of God by
asking Him to teach us the difficult science, the difficult habit of letting myself be
loved by Him, to feel Him close and feel His tenderness! May the Lord give us this
grace.”
As you ponder these questions about love, I leave you with the words of
beloved Pedro Arrupe, perhaps the most influential Jesuit of the twentieth century:
Nothing is more practical than finding God, than falling in love in a quite
absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination,
will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the
morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends,
what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes
you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love with Jesus, stay in love with Jesus and
it will decide everything.