You are Called to Tell Your Story – 15 January 2023
John 1:29–42
Whether you call it evangelization, witnessing, or testifying, today's readings speak about proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ to others. In today's gospel, both John and Jesus show us a way to testify to our faith and invite people to share our spiritual journey. The invitation is simple: “Come and see!”
. . . John saw the Spirit descend on his relative Jesus when he was baptized. John heard God's voice thundering from heaven calling Jesus God's Beloved Son. John saw and heard, and then he spoke. That is what witnesses do. In a courtroom, witnesses are not called to convince the jury of anything. That is the lawyers' job. Witnesses are not called to condemn or pardon people. That is the judge's job. Witnesses are simply called to tell people what they saw and heard.
Like John the Baptizer and any other witness, we are called to tell people what we have seen and heard. None of us have seen the Spirit descending or have heard a voice from heaven speaking, but we have seen the Spirit's work in our own lives and have heard God's word to us. This started at our own baptism.
While many of us cannot remember that [baptismal] event, we can speak about how the Spirit has led us from our infancy and how God's word has touched our lives, comforting and challenging us along our own personal spiritual journey. Some of us, however, can remember our baptism and the chain of events that led us to proclaim boldly our faith at the baptismal waters. All we need to do is speak about these things to others, just as John told others what he saw and heard. –– John Paul Salay
1 Corinthians1:1–9
Many of our liturgies begin with the words “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” What does it mean to offer this grace and peace? What does it mean to receive it and “pass it forward?” –– E. Byron Anderson
Isaiah 49:1–7
This is the second of the Servant Songs in Second Isaiah. Herein the Servant reports his divine call. There are many pre-exilic accounts of God's call that are echoed here. Richard J. Clifford (Fair Spoken and Persuading [New York: Paulist, 1984] 150) observes: “Since the servant's vocation in Second Isaiah is to lead Israel to a new Exodus-Conquest, it is not surprising that his call is modeled on the commission of Moses in Exodus 3:1–4:17. . . [and] in the commissions of Gideon in Judges 6:11–24 and . . . of Jeremiah (1:4–10).”
Clifford describes this common pattern: Yahweh appoints to a task, but the person begs off, citing some disability. Moses says the Israelites don't have confidence in him, Gideon points out his low-class status, Jeremiah cites his youth and lack of eloquence.
In today's reading Yahweh engages in an extended dialogue with the Servant (“he said,” “but I said,” “and he said”) to persuade him to the task of being a light to the nations. The release of the Jews from their captors in Babylonia will prove to the nations that there is only one God, the God of Israel. –– Joseph McHugh
John Paul Salay is Loyola University’s Minister of Liturgy and the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA).
E. Byron (Ron) Anderson is the Ernest and Bernice Styberg Professor of Worship and the Director of the Nellie B. Ebersole Program in Music Ministry at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois.
Joseph McHugh is a freelance writer from New Jersey, and a former weekly newspaper columnist writing on lectionary readings whose writing includes a revision of Rev. Melvin L Farrell’s Getting to Know the Bible (ACTA Publications, 2003).
Homily Service 41, no. 1 (2008): 111–120.