The Lord's invitation to the disciples of John the Baptist, "Come and see!" caught my attention this morning during the gospel. I realized it was a personal invitation. Not a detached functionary and uninvolved description of where he lived and what he did. He was inviting them for an instant first-hand experience; not a lecture or a description about himself, from someone else, at a later period. He invites them to come, just as they are so that they can see him as he is. No pretensions or fear of skeletons in the cupboard leading to a double life.
Implications for formation:
- Is it that we lead our formees to an experience of the Lord or are we merely doling out theories which in fact do not in any way assist them to have an encounter with the Lord?
- Is our invitation to young people who join us a genuine open invitation or a 'conditioned' entry ticket? Not something 'put up for them' other than what we truly are.
- Do I tell young people with me, 'Do as I say' and lay down rules while in fact, I have another set of criteria and attitudes I live by, for myself?
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