Reflections on the Word

2^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle B

1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19;  1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20;  John 1:35-42

January 15, 2012

Sr. Phyllis Jaszkowiak

“Free at last.  Free at last.  Thank God almighty, I’m free at last.”  These words are on the tombstone of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

When I first saw them I thought he was free because he had been released from this world and the racism, violence, and hatred rampant in it.  But I have come to learn he was free long before his death.  He was free because he had come to know Christ.  Not just about Christ, not just about his teachings, not about just imitating him, but coming to know Christ in a friendship where friends know one another deeply. 

It was knowing Christ in this way that characterized Martin Luther King during the Civil Rights Movement, and it was this friendship that enabled him to face death by an assassin.  Dr. King talks about this relationship in his speech where he tells us, “I’ve been to the mountain top!”  Reminiscent of Moses’ meeting God face-to-face on Mount Sinai.

The gospel today invites us all to come to the mountain top, to meet Jesus in a deep and personal way.  This invitation is usually issued through someone else.  In the first reading it was Eli who helped Samuel answer his call from the Lord.  In the gospel, John pointed out Jesus to his disciples.  In Dr. King’s life, he was asked by leaders of the other Black churches to be the leader of the Civil rights Movement.  At first he refused, but through their insistence, he finally accepted his call.

It is the same with us today.  It is through others we come to meet Christ.  We will welcome our Catechumens today.  They come through the invitation and example of others, through friends and family.  They see something that attracted them in their friends and family, and so start on the journey to come to know Christ.  We will ritualize that journey today.

In the summer of 2003 I visited Auschwitz, the concentration camp in Poland.  I started to take pictures, but gave it up.  The power of those who had died there was too overwhelming.  Their spirits were restless, and so I listened.  I tried to tell them they could rest now, their suffering was over. 

Instead they told me there was still much work to be done so that what happened to them would never happen again, and that war would no longer be necessary to work out differences among nations.  That peace needed to be the way of nations relating to nations, and peace the way people relate to people. 

They asked that this message be taken to all whom we meet.  Then their deaths would not be in vain, and then they could rest.

It is what the first Disciples of Christ came to learn, only after his resurrection, that the way of love, peace and non-violence is the only way to make changes for the good.  In fact for about the first 300 years or so, one could not be a soldier and a Christian at the same time.  If soldiers were converted, they had to change their occupation.

Dr. King was assassinated only after his message of love, non-violence and equality had broadened to include all the people who were poor, and he began to oppose the Vietnam War.  It was then he began to realize he would be killed, but he continued on with his message for that was what Jesus asked of him.  He drew on his experience of Christ, “I’ve been to the mountaintop”, which enabled him to continue.

We also learn the way of love, peace and non-violence through coming to know Jesus when we meet him face-to-face.  Then no matter what happens in our lives we can face it with the peace and serenity of Christ.

So let us answer the invitation, “Come and See”, “Come to the Mountain top”.