Being a disciple is an important aspect of our calling as baptised Christians. Being a disciple is the way we give witness to our faith, the way we attend to the call to evangelise the world. What does it mean to be a disciple? Samuel in the first reading is a good example in getting to grips with the concept of discipleship. “Speak Lord your servant is listening!” This is the bedrock phrase for understanding and implementing discipleship. At the very heart of discipleship is listening and listening to the Lord. Samuel lets the Lord know he has an open heart ready to be filled by his listening to the Lord’s instructions. Today as we are called to be disciples we have the instruction from the Lord but also the blue print for carrying out these instructions in the teaching of the church, in the commandments from the scriptures, in the words of Jesus, from loving God and our neighbour to loving our enemies and forgiving those who hurt us, to seeing an example of Jesus’ words made concrete on the Cross. We have the blueprint for being a disciple but like Samuel do we have a listening heart?
In the gospel we see the fledging disciples of Jesus meeting him for the first time John calls him the “Lamb of God!” professing his faith and that leads the two disciples to seek the company of Jesus and spend time with him before proclaiming him to be the one, the Messiah, the Christ. Here we have a deeper understanding of discipleship. Seeking Christ and spending time with him. This is an important part of discipleship. We are to seek Christ in our living, to spend time with him so as to know what his call holds for us. So we know what it is we are to do in imitation of what we find when we have spent time with him. Andrew wants to tell others of Jesus and here lies the essence of discipleship. Telling others spreading the good news sharing our faith all important aspects of discipleship. So how do we do this? Firstly like Samuel have a listening heart ready for the Lords’ instructions then have Andrews enthusiasm for telling people what we hear from our listening to the Lord!
Do we talk to others about Jesus, about the Christ? I don’t mean get a soapbox and stand on the corner of the street shouting out to others! But do we talk to others about Christ? Do we share the joy of our faith? Do we by word and action demonstrate our listening to Christ? It is easy to talk about Christ to like minded people in our church buildings but how do we engage the outside world, those who have not heard the gospel or those who need to hear its life affirming message?
One of our teachers shared a story with me about her RE class in Secondary school. The pupils were writing down their understanding of Christian faith. One student had written we worship at the Holy Apple in Christianity….what she meant was the Tabernacle but her grasp of faith was limited to a half listened too RE lesson! There are so many who are clueless about the faith, hard to understand in this information driven age but we have a responsibility to be a disciple today and the urgency is as acute now as it ever has been!
We pray like Samuel to have a listening heart tuned into the Lord and enthusiasm and urgency to spread the faith to others like Andrew in the gospel today.
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