Have you ever noticed in the Gospels that when Jesus is asked a simple question, He doesn’t always give a simple answer. Often, His responses are an invitation to a deeper conversation and encounter with the Lord.

In John’s Gospel especially, we have the questions and answers with Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman at the well, and the man born blind. The Gospel passage for this weekend from John is no different. The simple question asked by the disciple was, “Where do you stay?” Our Lord’s response is not an answer but an invitation: “Come and see.” It is this invitation and the disciples’ willingness to accept it that changed their lives. After spending a good deal of time with him, Andrew is able to announce to Simon Peter that they had found the Messiah — or we might say, the Messiah had found them.

This is an important lesson for our life of prayer. We ask many questions of God when we turn to Him in our prayer. What we need to remember is that, like in the Gospels, we don’t always get the answers we would like, and sometimes we don’t get an answer at all; rather, we are invited to encounter the Lord in a more significant and intimate way. Like Andrew, we are invited to come and see, to spend time with Him and to learn from Him so that we can become missionaries, if you will, on His behalf.

What does this mean practically? It means learning to listen for the Lord’s voice and the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives. It means spending some time with God’s word so we can learn the lessons handed down by our ancestors in faith. It means that we all have so much to learn that can only be taught by the true master and teacher, Jesus Christ.

This isn’t always easy to live out. There are times when I ask questions of the Lord, and I wish I would just get a quick and easy answer, and what I get is an invitation to trust, be patient, listen, be open to something I might not want, or all of the above.

Prayer, spending time with Jesus, although so often comforting and an experience of receiving answers, can also be a lesson in waiting upon the Lord when we would prefer not to. Will we always be successful in waiting? No. Will we always be able to respond like Andrew? Probably not. But it doesn’t’ mean we should stop trying just because we have an occasional setback or failure in faith.

Jesus wants to know what we are looking for in life. He wants us to ask Him questions and to seek answers. But, He also wants to teach us that to really grow in discipleship takes time, patience, perseverance, and incredible trust.

May this coming week be a time for all of us to respond to the invitation to “come and see,” to spend some quality time with Him so that like Andrew we might proclaim to others that we have found the Messiah.

In His holy name,

Msgr. John J. McDermott

Diocesan Administrator