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January 4, 2024Today two important questions are asked. John the Baptist points out to Andrew and John “Behold the Lamb of God” (Ecce Agnus Dei) and as they begin to follow him, Jesus abruptly turns around halting them in their tracks and asks, “What do you seek.” They say to him “Rabbi, where are you staying?” Jesus says to them “Come and see.” Those two questions: “what are you searching for?” and “where are you residing Lord?” speak to the residency of our heart’s innate desire. Of this St. Augustine says: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you Lord.” If this is my answer to the first question, then, I have to ask myself, have I made a place for Christ to reside in my heart? In the first reading, John states that “no one who abides in Him sins, for God’s nature abides in him and He cannot sin.”
Jesus did not come into a world ready to let him in, for we know from Luke 2:7 “she brought forth her firstborn Son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, for there was no room for them in the Inn.” I often think about Jesus starting and ending his earthly life with Mary wrapping him in linen and laying him in a cave. Again, the question now takes on a more ominous tone “where are you staying Lord?” … “Come and see!”
It is no wonder that contemplative saints like St. Mary Magdalen spent her final days in a cave. “What do you seek?” … “Where are you staying Lord?” Caves can be cold and dark places. Does that describe my heart when I refuse to forgive or show grace, lack charity, or when I commit sin? Do I say to Christ, in those moments, there is no room for you to reside here? If so, then “Where are you staying Lord?” now becomes my cry for help! It is in those moments when I feel isolated, alone, spiritually desolate and lost, that I can go to our Holy Mother Mary in the cave. “To thee do we cry poor banished children of Eve, show unto us the Blessed fruit of thy womb Jesus!” In this season of Christmas, may we answer the call of Christ, just like St. Elizabeth Ann Seton did, when Jesus turns around and asks us: “What do you seek?”