David

What are we looking for? What is it we want? They’re good questions to ask ourselves occasionally, or indeed, have put to us. It’s what Jesus asks Andrew and his friend in the gospel. They respond with another question: ‘where do you live?’

In my office there is a wall hanging with the letters C+M+B. which I was given when I visited Innsbruck in Austria in 1997. As I walked from the railway station to our Redemptorist house, I noticed these letters written in chalk above the entrance doors to a number of houses in the following fashion 19*C+M+B+97.

Many would have seen the 2016 movie, “Hidden Figures,” which focused on the roles of three African American women mathematicians – Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson – who worked at NASA during the Mercury program. Few would have known how these three women played crucial roles in the success of John Glenn’s historic spaceflight.

For centuries, the Jewish people had treasured the words of prophets like Isaiah. They would have had the promises we see in today’s gospel and first reading inscribed on their minds and hearts.

I recall a scripture scholar describing John the Baptist as an extremely eccentric character with an odd wardrobe and an unusual diet. However, you imagine him, certainly John must have had a captivating personality, attracting large followings in less than comfortable surroundings, and this surely suggests that his message carried real conviction.