Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- What Are We Looking For?

John 1:35-42
Friends, in today’s Gospel,
two of John the Baptist’s disciples follow Jesus and encounter him.

Jesus’ question to the two young men—
“What are you looking for?”—
is an indispensably important one.
Many people go through life not really knowing
what they most fundamentally want,
and accordingly, they drift.

The correct answer to Jesus’ question is “eternal life”
or “friendship with God” or “holiness.”
This is the simple, clear, unambiguous articulation of the end goal
that any believer should have as he endeavors to lead his life.

Now, other people may know more or less what they want spiritually,
but they lack the courage and attention to pursue that end
in the face of distractions and opposition.
They know that they should be growing in holiness,
but the secular culture proposes sex, pleasure, power,
and honor so attractively that they lose their way.
Or perhaps they receive withering criticism
from those who are stuck in the old, standard way of life,
and they give in.

+++If you consider that God is righteous,
you also know that everyone who acts in righteousness
is begotten by him.
See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God.
Yet so we are.
The reason the world does not know us
is that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God’s children now;
what we shall be has not yet been revealed.
We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.
Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure,
as he is pure.
Everyone who commits sin commits lawlessness,
for sin is lawlessness.
You know that he was revealed to take away sins,
and in him there is no sin.
No one who remains in him sins;
no one who sins has seen him or known
John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said,
"Behold, the Lamb of God,
who takes away the sin of the world.
He is the one of whom I said,
'A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me
because he existed before me.'
I did not know him,
but the reason why I came baptizing with water
was that he might be made known to Israel."
John testified further, saying,
"I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from the sky
and remain upon him.
I did not know him,
but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me,

'On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain,
he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.'
Now I have seen and testified
that he is the Son of God."+++

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