“What are you looking for?” That is the question today’s liturgy puts before us. It is a question addressed to us, but also one we address to God. It is the question of vocation. Put another way it asks, “What do you and God want to do with the life you have been given?”
 
Do we make our life choices with Jesus as our greatest influence?  Is being a follower of the Lord our number one focus?  What has a higher priority in your life: being a patriotic American or being a disciple of Jesus Christ?  How much of a difference does our relationship with God make in the way we live our lives?  I think way too many of us who profess to be Catholic have gone on living our lives pretty much like everyone else. No real difference can be observed.  I am a sinner and I want to be liked, so I pray this doesn’t sound too arrogant, but I think very often, we are living life on “cruise control.”
 
Being a committed disciple is different than just going through the motions of living: growing up, going to school, getting married, having children, getting a job. These are very important moments and valuable achievements in a person’s life.  But often they are just door openers to life’s next stage of “cruise control” living.  Like Samuel we need to develop a spirituality that will allow us to sincerely say, "Speak, for your servant is listening."  We need to allow ourselves
to fall into that surrender that creates a different set of eyes through which we can see a deeper meaning to “what it’s all about.”  Through our baptism we are all called to discipleship.
But it just doesn’t happen by being baptized.  We need to respond to the grace of our baptism by falling in love with God and allowing God’s love to be the deepest meaning of our life.  That’s when we become committed disciples.
 
Today’s Gospel asks, “What are you looking for?” We respond to that question through all our choices, large and small. As people baptized and thus consecrated to God, we also must look to God and ask, “What are you looking for?” God responds through the Scriptures and the needs of our times. It is ours to decide if we want to accept the invitation to come and see — and be changed forever.
 
This weekend we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr.  He was a sinner like the rest of us, but he certainly knew what it meant to be a committed disciple of Jesus Christ.  I was pleased by the Catholic participation in the Tybee MLK parade and program last Saturday. 
I like parades and I like a National Holiday in honor of Dr. King, but as I said at last week’s program, I think we’ve domesticated his commitment as a Disciple and his role as a prophet for our times.  The events in Charlottesville, Virginia, this past summer remind us that racism still exists in our country.  Why do we still have such a long way to go?
 
While he was not a Catholic himself, we celebrate the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr. because his goals are completely aligned with the themes of Catholic Social Teaching:  the life and dignity of all people; the call to community participation and inclusion of all Americans, regardless of their skin color, in our democracy; the duty to advocate for those who are downtrodden, putting the needs of the poor and vulnerable first; and solidarity in our one human family, regardless of racial, ethnic, economic, and ideological differences.   The National Holiday is observed annually on the third Monday of January. Reverend King’s actual birthday is January 15.
 
 
Odds and Ends:
 

• I am grateful to Margret Dorroh for organizing the Diocesan Lenten Program. Living the Eucharist is a parish-based Lenten faith-sharing group designed to help revitalize parish life and mission through a more profound experience of Sunday Mass.  I’ll have more information in next week’s bulletin, but please call the office if you might be interested, so we have some sense of how many workbooks to order.
• For medical emergencies, I want parishioners to have direct access to their pastor.  My cell phone # is 706-267-1073.  Please make note of it since I don’t want to put it on-line or publish it beyond this bulletin notice.  I trust you’ll respect my “boundaries”.
• I am officiating at a wedding this Saturday evening in Augusta.  I grateful to Fr. Joe Smith (Saturday evening) and Fr. Jean-Luc Zadroga O.S.B (Sunday morning) for filling in for me.
• I am delighted to announce that the Parish has hired Ryan Beke as our new Music Director.  On behalf of the Parish, I thank Helen Stevenson for her many years of great service in leading our Music Ministry.  I am also grateful for Susan Weber for her great work in coordinating our Religious Education Program.  Her husband, David, has taken on the responsibility of directing the 4-H camp in the Georgia Mountains.  They will be missed.
• Many of us are still feeling the agony of defeat.  I offer begrudging congratulations to Father Peyton who experienced the thrill of victory in Alabama’s win over the Dawgs.  And by the time you read this most of you will already know the outcome of the Falcon’s game.  I’d simply like to offer a somewhat coy, “Go Birds!”

 
On the Way Home – In today’s gospel Jesus asked the two disciples "What are you looking for?" How would you answer?  What are your deepest hopes and desires?

Fr. Jerry Ragan