2 Epiphany, Year B, Jan. 14
1 Sam. 3:1-10 (11-20)
Ps. 139:1-5, 12-17
1 Cor. 6:12-20 • John 1:43-51
A strident form of Christianity is ubiquitous in the United States. It is loud, overly confident, paranoid, and angry, and bears little resemblance to the historic deposit of faith. Nor does it contribute to the construction of the peaceable kingdom together with all people of good will. Despite all the so-called Christian proclamation, “the word of the Lord is rare in these days” (1 Sam. 3:1). True and life-giving visions are not widespread.
And yet, thanks be to God, “the lamp of God has not yet gone out” (1 Sam. 3:3). The light of the world pours out to beatify all things. In myriad sacramentals and preeminently in Word and Sacrament, the secret and silent Word of God illumines a holy people. Enfolded by this mystery, a vow of silence is almost inevitable (the Collect). We bear witness to the Word, but always from a deep place of silence and secrecy, a room where the door is shut. We then notice something that would be unbearable were it not rooted entirely in God’s love: that we are observed by a divine eye.
“O Lord, you have searched me out and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You trace my journey and my resting-places and are acquainted with all my ways” (Ps. 139:1-3). As the Lord looks down from heaven upon us all, we are filled and overwhelmed with thoughts of God. “How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! I try to count them — they are more than the sand; I come to the end — I am still with you.” And because the thoughts of God are innumerable, we enter a luminous cloud of unknowing.
Like Nathaniel, we are seen. Recall the story. “Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.’ Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’ When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!’ Nathanael asked him, ‘Where did you get to know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you’” (John 1:43-48). No doubt, Jesus sees into the heart of Nathanael, but he sees the outer form as well. Jesus sees the fig tree and the body of Nathanael resting under it.
Try to see the body of Nathanael reclined under the fig tree. Realize that Jesus wants to save body and soul, and because we think almost too much of the salvation of souls, concentrate on the body. What are we to think of Nathanael, and of ourselves? St. Paul poses a rhetorical question: “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? … Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:15, 19-20).
Our bodies were presented to the Lord in baptism. During this mystery our sins were washed away, and our bodies transformed as the home of light. The light of the world made us luminaries in the world, giving us transfigured bodies. The Lord looks into your soul and radiates from your body.
Look It Up: 1 Samuel 3:10; Psalm 139:1; John 1:48
Think About It: The Lord is standing near you, searching you, and loving you.