Where is permanence in life? As much as we seek and find security in using our talents and resources to take care of ourselves and those we love, we are on a journey. Life is a journey. As I look at my life, I have lived in nine different houses. Growing up, my parents rented houses in four different places in Greenport before they finally bought one. As a priest I have lived in five different parishes, St. Patrick’s is the place I have lived the longest in my whole life. Our houses are shelters that become homes where we are accepted, nourished, encouraged, and find peace. But we must also be mindful of the fact that our life in this world is a road to our final destination, the fullness of God’s presence. We look for permanence and peace in our lives, but they are only a taste of the permanence and peace that await us in God’s presence in heaven.

In today’s Gospel (John 1:335-42), two of the disciples of John the Baptist see Jesus and start to follow Him. Jesus sees them and asks, “What are you looking for?” The answer, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” Jesus replies, “Come, and you will see.” We are all looking for what those two men sought, the peace, meaning, and hope that come from finding the meaning of our lives in Jesus. We look for security in this world, but the ultimate security comes when we come to see through the light of faith who we are, where we are going, and how we are going to get there. We find comfort and security in this life, but we know in our hearts that there is something more. Jesus is that something more.

When I was growing up and going to Religious Ed, there was a much greater focus on sin and judgment than we have today. Jesus did not come to “scare the hell out of us” but to open our minds and hearts to the path to peace that only our faith in God can illuminate for us. Human intelligence and reason have created many advances in so many areas, but we go down the path of darkness when we exalt reason alone and push God out of the picture. In a book I am reading now, “Western Culture, Today and Tomorrow” by Pope Benedict XVI, he says: “Let us not forget, however, that the God of reason and love is also the Judge of the world and mankind - the guarantor of justice, to whom we must all render an accounting. Given the temptations to power, it is a fundamental obligation to keep in mind the truth about the Judgment: every one of us must someday give an account. There is a justice that is not abolished by love.”