“What are you looking for?”

My dear friends in Christ,

The coming months and years will be difficult ones for us as Catholics. The secular society will become more hostile against us. Our Catholic beliefs and values will be attacked and ridiculed. We will be pulled in different directions as our country continues down the path of polarization and disunity. How do we spiritually prepare ourselves for such a hostile climate? Well of course the answer is a complicated one, but our Gospel this morning can help us figure it out. 

We hear in the Gospel today that as Jesus was walking by John the Baptist announces “Behold, the Lamb of God.” He knows exactly who Christ is, he recognizes him and makes him known to those who were with him. We have the benefit to be alive not only after the events of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection, but also of the 2,000 year development of thought on Christ and his teachings. Everyone of us here should know who Christ is. We should keep this in mind every time we enter a Church see him in the tabernacle. We should genuflect or at least bow as a sign of respect for his presence. What John is saying here, though those listening most likely didn’t entirely grasp, is that Jesus is the sacrificial lamb. He will take the place of the Temple Sacrifice, and will do so on our behalf. Pope St. Leo the Great said: “There was no other reason for the Son of God becoming flesh than that he should be fixed to the cross.” He was born so that he would take our sins upon himself, and save us from sin and death through his sacrifice on Calvary.

After John announces Christ’s presence to those he was with, Jesus turns to them as says: “What are you looking for?” This is a very important question for all of us. What are we seeking in life? We all know of people who drift from one thing to another. Who go off to “find themselves.” What we need to be looking for, what we need to be wanting in our lives is holiness. We need to be seeking a deep friendship with God. This should be the goal of everything we do in life. When we have this goal in mind, we need to make sure we do not let other things get in the way and prevent us from achieving it. The secular culture wants us to think that we should be pursuing power, sex, pleasure, money, and honor. This is how so many get lost in their pursuit of holiness. We get too focused on these things of this world, that we forget about God. Luckily God never stops seeking us. We can always find our way back to him through the sacraments, namely confession and the holy Eucharist. 

So how do we keep our eyes on the prize? How do we stay focused on seeking holiness in the midst of all the distractions, anxieties, and temptations all around us? First we need to stay in the state of grace. We need to make confession a regular part of our lives. We need to make sure we are worthilly and regularly receiving Holy Communion, and we need to take time for prayer everyday. I would suggest that in the next week, take one day and unplug from social media and the news, it’s just one day so you won’t miss much. And use that time you would have spent looking at dog pictures and funny videos and instead read and meditate on a passage from the Gospels. Take that time to talk with God. Tell him how you are doing and what you are feeling. When we are grounded in our relationship with the Lord, we will be able to face any of the challenges which lie before us.