WHAT  ARE  YOU  

LOOKING  FOR?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 3^rd Monday  after Easter is, “What Are You Looking For?”

That’s a bottom line theme in today’s gospel  - and  in much of the Gospel of John.

What are you looking for?

EXAMINATION  TIME

How much time do we spend each day looking for this and that?

We walk in into a room and say, “It’s in here somewhere?”

And it’s an ongoing joke - that is part of aging process - to ask, “Why did I come into  this room in the first place?”

I remember a young woman telling me 3 or 4 of the qualities she was looking for in a guy?  I asked her: “Well how many are on your list?”  She answered, “About ten!”

She’s now married. I never met the guy? Would  I dare to ask her, “How close is he to fulfilling your requirements?”

Looking back, is she laughing or is she crying - or has she forgotten she had a list - and is now dealing with the real person the guy is?

TODAY’S READINGS

In today’s first reading from Acts 6: 8-15, Stephen is featured.  He and the early Christian leaders - like Christ - were asking questions that people were not asking. They were settled. The early Christians were unsettling and upsetting the old order.

Jesus the Nazorean spoke about Moses and God, the Law and Customs - and sometimes when people are challenged - when lids are lifted - when the Spirit starts stirring the pot - “Uh OH’s” are heard from the stove which is the heart. 

So sometimes we look at faces - or into eyes - and we ask, “What’s cooking?”  Translation: what’s going on within your heart? What are you looking for?

In today’s gospel Jesus meets people who are looking for him. They can’t figure out how Jesus moves about. They want more bread, but he wants to feed folks with the food that endures for eternal life.

If you use the Eucharistic Chapel - if you come to weekday Mass - besides Sunday Mass - you have to read John 6 - over and over and over again.

It’s been around some 1900 plus years.

It’s a document that took years to finalize - somewhere around 90.

It has development. It deals with lots of stuff they were trying to figure out and lots of stuff we’re  trying to figure out - as we develop and evolve.

If you’re married - if you have kids - if you have parents that are still around - if you have parents who have died -  if you look at your relationships - the others are the same as they were back when - but  they are also quite different from back then. Our nuclear self is the same - but our developing and changing self is different.

It’s called evolution - growth - development.

If we don’t change, we’re dead - we’re not doing our inner work. We’re  not evolving.

We see our parents different today - than we saw them 20 years. They have changed and we have changed.

So too Jesus.  So too Jesus in John. So we go through what early Christians in the Johannine churches went through from 50 to the year 100 or so.

And Biblical scholars have certainly grown and changed in their understanding of the Gospel of John down through the centuries.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily for today is, “What Are You Looking For?”

Make lists. Hang onto them. See how they change through the years. Amen.