Homily Notes of Bishop Brendan Leahy, Bruff Parish

After the celebration of Christmas that concluded last week with the Baptism of the Lord, this Sunday we are back in what’s called “ordinary time”. It’s the time when for the coming weeks before Lent and again after Easter we get to hear about Jesus’ public ministry – what he did and said, the people he met, the reactions to him, the community that came to life around him and, ultimately, how he was crucified in Jerusalem.

Today the focus is on one of the earliest episodes in his public ministry – a day that Jesus passed by John the Baptist and two of John the Baptist’s disciples began to follow Jesus. One of them was Andrew who the following day would tell Peter “we have found the Messiah” and the Jesus gave Peter his name that means “rock”. It was a foundational moment of the new community that was now beginning.

As you know I attended the Synodal Assembly in Rome last October that saw over 400 come together from all over the world to be with Pope Francis – women and men, young and old, lay and clerical, religious, cardinals, bishops, priests… During the Synod it was emphasised that the foundation of synodality is our baptism. We are all called through baptism to be co-responsible together as followers of Jesus in building up the community.

All called. The story in the First Reading provides us with a good example of someone listening out and hearing the called and say “speak, Lord, your servant is listening”. That’s what each of us has to do – to listen to what God is calling us to do – as a mother or father, a grandparent, as a daughter or son… Each us has to be living as a follower of Jesus in the way we go about things. That’s also what the Second Reading is getting at in speaking about how we treat our body which is a temple of the Holy Spirit.

If we do our part as a follower of Jesus, listening to him, putting his Word into practice, then life around us begins to change as it did for Andrew and Peter.

Today is a good day to think about our relationship with Jesus. We know about him but do we nourish our knowledge of him? Do we work on “listening” to him? If the Andrew and the other disciple hadn’t listened to John the Baptist, they might not have discovered Jesus. If Peter hadn’t listened to Andrew, he might not have become the “rock” he was meant to be in God’s plan.

Listening out for what God might be saying to us is an attitude we need to work on. It requires us to silence the many inside voices that can often drown out the voice of Jesus. During the week I went to visit a group of 40 young people that are on a youth programme run by the diocese. It was heartening to see them. While I was there they were working in groups and their task was to write something affirming about the others in the group that they had noticed during the week. It was lovely to see the young people do that. But it’s something we can all do – try and notice the positive in others and in situations, even when it might be difficult, and listen out for what maybe God is saying to us through them.

When we listen well to one another, we are also opening ourselves to the voice of God.

The point is that God doesn’t just speak to us dramatically from the sky. His way is much more gentle – he comes close to us through others and offers us advice and calls us to take steps. In this sense, we are all co-responsible for the Church. Together, listening to each other, we build our Church.