From FR MICHAEL
All through our lives we are meeting with people. Some we have known for ages and others we meet for only a short while and we do not see them again. Sometimes we meet with people and a friendship grows. Then other times there is no connection at all. Sometimes a person we meet has a deep impact on us and we want to become a friend of that person.
This helps us to understand the importance of that first meeting between Jesus and three of the men who later became his disciples – Peter, Andrew and John. It is clear that they had a wonderful encounter with Jesus. Years later when John came to write his Gospel, he could remember the exact time of day in which the encounter took place – “it was about the 10th hour (4 o’clock in the afternoon)”.
I can’t help but register the awful meetings of the Post Office workers who lost so much, especially their dignity and families. Those meetings will stay with them forever.
In our Gospel today we read of the special friendship that was made in that meeting. They felt at peace with Jesus, he gave them time and kindness and a special purpose in their lives. They were captivated by him.
I enjoy that line to Peter when Christ looked hard at him. Christ looked at and chose Peter to be the rock on earth for all who would follow Christ. With each of us there is the same presence of being with Christ and being chosen, each in our way, to work for and live for the Kingdom of God – our home which starts from our conception and baptism.
My friend Father Joe, who worked with us in Saint Thomas More for Pakistan, has recently died. I will miss the times of sitting having a coffee with Joe as we talked about the church and how different life is for a priest in Pakistan, for him, and for a priest in England, for me.
Wherever any of us work and live, we are looking for a significant encounter with Jesus Christ and others in our world.
The Gospel Acclamation is “we have found the Messiah, the Christ.”
May Christ bring us all to be together.
with love and prayers Fr Michael