Think back on the most important moment of your life. This could be the moment you first met the love of your life, the moment when you fulfilled a lifelong dream, or maybe it was the moment when you courageously took a leap of faith. When you think about this most important moment of your life, what do you remember about this moment?
As the Apostle John is writing his Gospel, he is reflecting back on his life and the moments he shared with Jesus. In today’s Gospel reading from the Gospel of John, we hear what I believe is the most important moment of John’s life. This is when John met Jesus. This is when the beloved disciple met the love of his life, the moment when John fulfilled his lifelong dream of meeting the Messiah, and this is the moment that John courageously took a leap of faith by starting to follow Jesus. John just shared with us the moment that changed his life forever.
This moment also changed the life of the Apostle Andrew who was with him and this moment changed the entire course of the rest of human history forever. If there was no John and Andrew meeting Jesus after all, then Andrew would not have brought his brother Simon Peter to meet Jesus, and then Peter probably would not have been the rock on which Jesus built his church for all of us to be a part of.
In the moment when John first met Jesus, we hear Jesus speak for the first time in John’s Gospel. Jesus is speaking here to the apostles John and Andrew when Jesus says to them, “What are you looking for?” Notice how it is Jesus who initiates the conversation with us disciples and that he cares about what we are looking for. So, what are they looking for? Their response to Jesus’ question is puzzling at best. They respond to his question of “what are you looking for?” with a question of their own. They say to Jesus, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” This is a bizarre response, because it doesn’t appear to be answering the question of “what are you looking for?” and because the question they ask back to Jesus seems to have nothing to do with the question Jesus asked them … or does it.
When Jesus asks John and Andrew what they are looking for, they are basically answering Jesus’ like this, “What we are looking for is to stay with you, Jesus.” What may have started as John and Andrew desiring to stay with Jesus for the day grew to John and Andrew desiring to stay with Jesus for all eternity.
When we, like John and Andrew, have these profound, life-altering experiences, we tend to remember some very specific details about this moment. For example, John said that the time he first met Jesus was at about 4 in the afternoon. This may seem like a strange and irrelevant detail, but this detail is actually very relevant to you and me. As John is looking back on his life and experiences with Jesus, he can see with his hindsight being 20/20 that there are details from one moment of his life which connect to a detail in another moment of his life. For instance, the time that John was at the foot of the cross when Jesus died was 3 in the afternoon. The time that John and Andrew first met Jesus and went to stay with Jesus was at about 4 in the afternoon. This time of 4 in the afternoon communicates that Jesus’ disciples are meant to stay with Jesus after he dies on the cross.
John remains anonymous in today’s Gospel reading and throughout his Gospel because he wants each of us disciples to be the ones who are sharing these moments with Jesus. So, Jesus’ is asking each of us the question today, “What are you looking for?”
Maybe another way Jesus asks this question to each of us who have started following Jesus like this, “What are you doing here today?” Is it to check the box for some obligation? Is it to make a premium payment on an eternal life insurance policy? Is it because of the cute person sitting in the pew by you? Or is it to experience a come-to-Jesus moment? We should pray asking God to give us the same desire as John and Andrew had, to simply stay with Jesus.
I imagine the conversation Jesus had with John and Andrew playing out again here today. Jesus asked John and Andrew, “What are you looking for?” John and Andrew responded, “Where are you staying?” Jesus said, “Come, and you will see.” This is the same conversation Jesus desires to have with each of us in a few minutes from the altar. In the small host, Jesus looks at each of us and asks in his small voice in our hearts, “What are you looking for?” He hears our hearts respond back saying, “Where are you staying?” He smiles back at us with a twinkle in his eye, a wink and says, “Come, and you will see.”
As we approach Jesus at the altar it becomes clear that Jesus desires to stay inside us today. Jesus desires to stay with us not just for today, but for all eternity. When we receive Jesus in the Eucharist we experience intimacy with Jesus like John experienced at the last supper when John rested his head on Jesus’ bosom. In this moment John would have been able to hear the beating of Jesus’ sacred heart.
This intimacy with the Son of God we are given is only the beginning of the divine intimacy to which we are given access. We are also given access to and invited into the intimacy Jesus experiences with the Father. If you like John and Andrew are wondering where Jesus is staying, Jesus tells us later in this same first chapter of John. In John Chapter 1, Verse 18, we are told that Jesus is staying in the bosom of the Father. As Jesus stays in the bosom of the Father, he has one ear on the Father’s bosom hearing the Father’s heartbeat and Jesus’ other ear is right below the father’s mouth hearing every word that comes forth from the mouth of God. When we receive the Eucharist, Jesus is staying inside us as he is staying in the Father’s bosom. As Jesus stays in us, Jesus also connects us to the closeness he has staying in the Father’s bosom. Jesus wants to stay in us so we can stay with him and experience this intimacy with Jesus and the Father. By Jesus staying inside us and Jesus staying in the Father’s bosom, we too can hear the Father’s heartbeat and hear every word that pours forth from the mouth of God.
Because staying with Jesus like this is such an amazing experience, I am sure John and Andrew wanted to just stay there with Jesus. However, this awesome experience of staying with Jesus was something Andrew felt compelled to go out and share with his brother Simon Peter so he too could come to meet and stay with Jesus. After Andrew excitedly tells his brother Simon Peter about meeting Jesus and brings his brother to meet Jesus, Peter goes onto be the rock that Jesus church is built upon by becoming the first Pope. This is the example each of us disciples are called to follow.
After we experience this moment of meeting and staying with Jesus today, we too should feel compelled to go out to share this important moment of our lives with someone else and bring someone close to us to meet and stay with Jesus. By doing so, they may experience the most important moment of their life and they may then play their important role in building up the Church.