Sunday, January 18 @ 10:00 AM
St. Augustine Cathedral

My dear sisters and brothers,

The task my mother gave to my father was a simple one: watch your son.

Saturday afternoon, my mother had her ritual. She would go across the street to Rex’s pork store to buy the meats for the Italian gravy that was a custom in my house every Sunday. But what my mother did not realize was that there was a Mets game on at the same time she was running her errand, and my father was a devoted Mets fan.

Could you imagine the horror on my mother’s face when she walked out of the pork store and saw her son on the fire escape, waving to people as they walked by? Yours truly. I had climbed out of the window next to the very television my father was watching. He had no idea I had walked out the window—none. He was so enthralled, so entertained, so captivated by the game. I think the world could have blown up, and he wouldn’t have noticed.

And he’s not the only one who does this. Have you ever had the experience of hearing a song, and the song gets into your head and you just can’t get it out? Over and over and over again—sometimes you even dream the song—because something about it captivates you, attracts you, engages you, and it just takes over.

When you’re watching football, many a person is as guilty as my father was that day.

But now, let me ask you a question. For all those experiences in our lives—when it seems that the only thing that matters is what we’re watching, what we’re experiencing, what’s before us—when was the last time that happened in you with Jesus? When was the last time in your life, and in mine, that He captivated us, overwhelmed us, attracted us to such a point that He was everything in that moment?

You see, my dear friends, that is part of what we call discipleship: to walk with the Lord so that we may recognize His presence, and His presence may be the formative power in our lives. We begin to see what He sees, act as He acts, and recognize Him in times of triumph and in times of challenge—knowing that He is always there. He is always there.

We learn to see Him, and we long—long, long—to be able to have Him literally take over our entire life, because He is the only one that matters in the end, and all else is through Him.

Now, you may be sitting there saying to yourself, “Oh, Bishop, that’s a noble idea—but how do you do it?” Well, like everything else in the spiritual life, there are practices and techniques that you and I can learn so that we can train ourselves to see His presence, enjoy it, dwell in it, and allow it to take over.

I’m going to give you one, in anticipation of next week, when Pope Francis of happy memory designated the Sunday of the Word of God. In anticipation of that, it is the very Word of God that can be one way by which we become ever more attracted, ever more engaged, ever more—beautifully—overwhelmed with the presence of Christ.

We hear the Word of God here, in this sacred setting, but we can take part of it with us all day long: a few words that we continue to repeat in our minds until they become at home there. By reflecting on them, we can see the Lord in the daily rough-and-tumble of life—yours and mine.

The words I want you to reflect on are these: “Behold the Lamb of God.” Out of John’s mouth—Behold the Lamb of God.

Simple words that should dwell in our minds. As we continue to reflect on them during the day, allow me to ask myself: Does every action of mine proclaim the Lamb of God? Does every word I’m going to say today say, “Behold the Lamb of God”? Do the values and decisions I make scream out, “I believe in the Lamb of God”? Do I become a mirror of the Lord who is supposed to be at the center of my life?

You see, my friends, those words should convict me—and they should convict you. As we allow them to take over our attention, perhaps in the background of all that we do, I have great confidence that I will live my life differently today than if I let those words simply pass me by. Perhaps the same may be true for you.

My dear friends, Jesus is all of our lives. He is the rock and the center. He is our purpose and our hope. He is the source of our forgiveness and our salvation. He is there at every moment of our lives, and He asks that we attend to Him.

And by doing so, we can attend to everything else—and everyone else—around us in a whole new way. Jesus is always attending to us.

When we die and stand before Him face to face, will we be able to say the same about Him in my life—or in yours?