Memorial of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Religious

Lectionary: 207

“What are you looking for?”
They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher),
“where are you staying?”
He said to them, “Come, and you will see.”
So they went and saw where he was staying,
and they stayed with him that day.


"What do you want?" Back in the seventies, a new idea swept through the ever-shifting world of pop psychology: "Feelings are real." It was quite a revelation to many of the boom generation who had been told how they feel -- glad and grateful -- when they weren't feeling glad or grateful. 
Asked to identify our real feelings, we had to stop and look inward, rather than to the parents, teachers, and other authorities who claimed to know us better than we knew ourselves.
It wasn't until the the aughts of a new century that a counselor asked me, "What do you want?" I didn't know I was permitted to want anything other than what I should want. He gave me a handy tool: When.... I feel.... and I want...." 

When (this) happens, I feel (this) and I want (that.) 

The premise, as old as Saint Augustine, is that human beings always want something. It's been kinda fun to ask myself what I want, even when time and circumstances said I could not have it. 
Jesus asked the noisy Bartimaeus, "What do you want?" and the beggar immediately replied, "I want to see!" 
A straight question. A straight answer. And the Lord healed his sight, right then and there. You'll remember that Jesus said, "Your faith has healed you!" Meaning that Bartimaeus's willingness to ask for healing coupled with his ready answer is faith. 
In today's gospel, Jesus asked two of Saint John's disciples -- who are about to become Jesus' first disciples, Peter and John -- "What are you looking for?" 
They wanted to know where he lived, and he invited them, "Come and see!" That changed their lives dramatically. 
After a very long drought of prayer -- two years or more -- when he begged the Lord to show him the way, Saint Francis discovered his vocation in the reading of the gospel during the Mass:

Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way.
Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’

With that the Italian declared, "That's it. That's what I want with all my heart!" 
After much prayer and long waiting, his will was conformed to God's will. He wanted what God wanted. 
As this third decade of the twenty-first century begins, we examine our hearts. We may ask, "What do I want? Is what I want worthy of me and my loved ones?" In recovery, using the Twelve Step Program of Alcoholics Anonymous, spirited people learn to seek... 

...through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understand Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.”