Simon Peter said,
‘Lord, where are you going?’
John 13
There is a bad old joke that suggests that giving a homily is the art of twisting whatever the preacher wants to say to fit the scriptures.
Of course the opposite is true. A good homily will communicate the Word of God without compromise or confusion.
This task of digesting the Word of God is not simply about understanding what each scripture passage meant in its original context.
Instead we listen today with open mind and heart, ready to be surprised and open to receiving new encouragements and challenges in passages that we may have pondered or passed over a hundred times before.
Today I am moved by Peter's question to Jesus: "where are you going?" This is a question I ask of Jesus. Lord, where are you going?
As I ask this I feel a readiness to follow. Yes I'm hesitant about experiencing betrayal, being abandoned by friends, and journeying to the cross, but there are seeds of willingness in me.
Then I realise that not only does Jesus ask me this question (John, where are you going) because he fears I am going to stray, but Jesus wants to know where I am going so that he can meet me there.
And today I understand again that Christian faith is not about working out where Jesus is going and following him there. Instead faith is a relationship with the divine lived in the joys, the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of each hour.
This reality is the stuff of my prayer: simply being willing to sit alone with Jesus in stillness and silence, allowing every bit of my present reality to enter my consciousness, afraid of nothing, accepting everything and knowing that I am not alone.
As I get ready to finish a job at four in the morning.
“Where are you going Robert?”
“To finish that job Lord.”
“I will meet you there Bob”
What a great reflection you have given us today John.
.Thankyou John, beautiful. As I journey through this Lenten Season and and also through the changing seasons of my life, I too pray to Jesus to strengthen me to walk quietly, gently and steadily onwards with him ready to embrace the good, the bad and the ugly together with him, come what may.i am encouraged by the words of Oscar Wilde: where there is sorrow (in particular) here is Holy Ground. It is easy to feel joy, hope, love but much more challenging to be a willing participant and share in the sufferings of Christ. It is here where numerous blessings can be found, hidden and waiting to be claimed.
Take my hand in yours Lord, and walk with me today. I fear I may get lost in my own busyness.
Beautiful – a mantra for the day if ever one was needed 🙂
A parish priest of the 1970s would strongly express his view about travel at Easter time. Easter and Holy Week are times to stay home, with and near family, Fr Noel told his parishioners. Perhaps this allows us time and space to be in relationship with Jesus, sharing our joys and hopes, griefs and anxieties?
John, along with Robert above, it is wonderfully reassuring to know that “Jesus wants to know where I am going so that he can meet me there”. Thank You !
I hope Jesus is going where I’m going over Easter (as I don’t know) and I hope and trust he’ll guide me to the right place to be with him.
Thank you John. This is indeed the question we must all ask ourselves- where are we going as the people of God, being called through Francis to become a Synodal church, open, listening, inclusive of ALL,…