John 1:35-42; 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

This little phone in our pockets reminds us that we are always on call. It need not always be a person that wants our attention. It can be news or pictures or short movies or whatever. It is hard to resist the buzz that signals a call. Hard to disregard the button that baits us for a click. FOMO is one big reason for this. FOMO, the fear of missing out, which is the fear of being excluded from what others might be enjoying.

God’s Word today reminds us that God is someone who wants our attention. Like that phone in our pocket, our faith reminds us that we are supposed to be always on call. Unlike that phone however, God’s call is resistible. We can choose not to answer. We can pretend not to hear. We can even convince ourselves that we have no FOMO, no fear of missing out on wake up calls, especially those that come from God.

Should we be afraid? Should we harbor this FOMO on God? Not really. Fear does not work. But we can ask about what we stand to lose when we miss out on God’s call.

The Gospel today suggests we lose three things. First, we miss what it is we are looking for. Second, we miss knowing it is God ultimately that we have been seeking all our lives. Lastly, we miss seeing for ourselves the God we are looking for. 

First, we miss knowing what it is we are looking for. When God calls us, it is not as some deity drafting us to render loyalty and service, as if our loyalty and service can add anything to God’s greatness at all. When God calls us, it is not to command but to ask us a simple question, the same question he asks the two disciples who come to him: What are you looking for?

The question is not for his sake but ours. Just as when we pray it is not for God to know our prayer but for us to admit what it is we truly desire. Do we even know what it is that drives us to do the things we’ve been doing all our lives? When God calls us, he wants us to know for whom our heart beats, what keeps us alive, where our desires take us, our lifelong priorities, what we truly treasure.

Second, we miss realizing that it is God ultimately that we are looking for. For a time we may think it is recognition or respect, wealth or power or whatever that will complete us. And yet for all our seeking, we are never satisfied. A desire once fulfilled leads on to another yet to be fulfilled. It is never enough. The thirst is never quenched.    

The two disciples sensed this when they were asked what it was they were looking for. They answered by asking from their thirst, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” In other words, we are looking for you. Where do we go to find you? Where are you in our world today? Do you stay with us only when we are good and things fall into place? Or do you also remain with us when life falls apart and we break away from you? We want to know where you are because missing you, we are left always wanting and never satisfied.   

To this question of where, our Lord replies with an invitation, come and see. It is an invitation not to stay put in some unmovable place or idea but to embark on a journey and an adventure. This invitation to movement, to encounter him along the way is the third thing we lose when we miss out on God’s call. We miss seeing or experiencing for ourselves the God we are looking for.

When Jesus calls us (and he calls all of us and not just a select few), he invites us to experience him not only in church but also in our daily lives. We encounter him through others, in the same manner that the two disciples were brought to Jesus by John, the same way Peter came to know Jesus through his brother Andrew.

We can recognize God’s call because God speaks with human words. Words that not only hush us when we are anxious and afraid but also disturb us when we are too settled and satisfied. God’s voice is the voice of someone on the cross. We sense his presence when someone washes our feet and teaches us love by example. God’s summons is there in every holy desire to return love with love and to express that love in deeds of service and presence. God calls us in every prompting to choose not only right over wrong, but the more loving option among the many good things we can do for others.

So, should we have this FOMO on God? Not really. Fear and God, like fear and love, do not go together. God’s call may be resistible, even forgettable. A pity though to miss the One our lives all along have been looking for.

*image from SGT University