Come and See: Drawing Others to Christ

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the first evangelical words of Christ—"Come and see"—and the power of personal witness in evangelization. He highlights how spreading the Gospel does not require grand gestures but genuine relationship, as seen in the example of John the Baptist, who led his disciples to Jesus, and in the early Church, where ordinary laypeople shared the faith in their daily lives. 

Drawing from John 1:39, Fr. Peter emphasizes that evangelization starts with personal conversion and time spent with Christ: "They came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day." He reminds us that just as St. Andrew brought St. Peter to Jesus, we, too, are called to bring others to him through our joy, kindness, and authentic Christian witness. 

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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins, and the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

With your permission, Lord Jesus Christ, truly present with us in the Blessed Sacrament. And we ask you, Lord, to speak to us through your eternal words. And this comes from the Gospel of St. John. And the title of this meditation is Our Lord’s first evangelical words. The first evangelical words that have resulted in close to 2 billion Christians, there's a long way to go, is in the Gospel, “Come and see,” those are the first words.

And how did that happen? We see that this massive mobilization, this great spread of the Gospel, began with something very folksy. It began with Jesus' relationship with his cousin, John the Baptist. And discipleship, followers of Our Lord began with a cousin introducing two guys to Jesus. And these two guys introduced their brothers to Jesus.

Let’s elaborate. What we want to ask of you, Lord - and we've contemplated this before - that there’s something, there’s a very important mandate in the Gospel that, especially in our society, is easy to gloss over, and that is: “I bring you good news of great joy to all the people.”

So right there, he’s seven pounds, and he doesn’t have the face of a Renaissance Italian with the body of a newborn infant. No, he's - I mean most of you are dads- a little tiny kid, very defenseless, little tiny fingers, little nose, crying, needs to be nursed, needs to be washed, needs to be kept warm. That’s God. And the shepherds are told that this is good news of great joy for everybody.

And then the Gospel ends in a more explicit way, but with the same message: “Preach the Gospel to all nations.” What’s interesting to note in the history of the Church, the first history book of the Church is written by the Holy Spirit. That’s the New Testament, barring the four Gospels. The Acts of the Apostles is the first record of the history of the Church and the Epistles of St. Paul. 

And that great mobilization, that great change of culture- at least they put a big dent- was done by laypeople. Lay men, lay women. And they did- they took the lion’s share because they were in the thick of things. They were in the workplace. They raised families. There were a lot of slaves in those days, and the slaves also evangelized. You’d have slaves who did manual labor and slaves who tutored. The first popes after St. Peter were former slaves tradition has it.

And we can tell the Lord: “Lord, I’ll be honest, I don’t lose too much sleep about preaching to all nations. And uhm, what do you want me to do, Lord? Fly to an Indian reservation and evangelize there? Do you want me to go to some missionary country or some underdeveloped country and evangelize? What do you want me to do? How do I preach to all nations?”

And Jesus shows us, “First, start with your brother. Start with your kids. Start with your buddy, and work in concentric circles.” How does this work? 

Well, this is fresh off the press. Recently, a couple-not married yet-rang my doorbell. They just wanted to chat. "I know you're crazy busy, Fr. Peter, but we want to chat with you. Do you have a minute?" Which is always a euphemism for about 43 minutes. Alright?

Anyway, so we’re chatting there. And the young man, I knew before. You ever see those pictures of you know someone on a diet, before-and-after? Well, both, spiritually were “before.” You know you see someone way overweight, you know very obese and after taking supplements, following a certain kind of diet-they’re you know in good shape, they’re slim, they’re attractive, they’re strong, they have muscle tone. Well, anyway, they definitely were on a spiritual level analogous to the obese person who could stand to lose, you know whatever it is, 85 pounds.  

And he was basically reminding me of how- no one’s a lost cause- but he would say how hopeless he was, what a lost cause he was. No one’s a lost cause. You know, it seemed like he was a lost cause. And he says that, “I attribute-I really-I’m so grateful that I’ve discovered my Christian faith.”

And he was singing the praises of this dad of his boyhood friend. This dad kind of took him under his wing a little bit, you know, didn’t do anything extraordinary, just stayed in touch with this guy. And he worked with this young man, and now this young man is- he’s kind of on fire. He’s, at least, in terms of desire, he really wants to follow Jesus Christ in a serious way.

And I told the kid- he’s not a kid you know kids get older and older. You know, now a 40+ year old could be a kid to me now. But anyway, and I said, “Your friend’s dad did something I can’t do. The bishop can’t do. Your parish priest can’t do. And reached out to one of the neighborhood kids and brought him back to Jesus Christ. And why? Because his circumstance- your friend’s dad is in a circumstance that I’m not in. I can’t do that. That’s impossible for me. I don’t work at 7-Eleven. I don’t flip hamburgers. I don’t live in a dorm. I don’t work downtown. I don’t live-hang around with neighborhood kids. But your friend’s dad took care of you. Now that’s why you’re on fire.”

So, the girlfriend said, “Well, I’m in the same boat. I was looking for meaning,” you know I got more than I bargained for, “In drugs, alcohol, and social media, and relationships that failed, that were deceptive, that let me down.” And I thought she was going to give credit to the boyfriend. You know I kind of baited her: “So what’s your story? Why are you on fire too?” “Oh yeah. Oh yeah, I love Jesus a lot. I can’t get enough of the sacraments and all that.” She says, “Yeah, I’m kind of on fire.” And I thought she was going to give credit to the boyfriend. She didn’t-much to his disappointment.

She said, “No, at work, I made two friends.” One’s not Catholic, non-Catholic Christian. The other one is a Catholic girl. “And they took me under their wing and said that I’m looking for joy in the wrong way.” And she was telling me, “Well they were such good friends, they treated me so well, and they were always kind of happy, that I realized that they were onto something that I was not on. And I was looking for something to just give me some meaning, and you know therapy didn’t do it, relationships- nothing did it! So, I was empty.” She said she was hopeless as well. 

Never ducked in the door of a church. No catholic education at all. But she said, “I was looking for something and then these two friends of mine, well they gave me meaning. Because of who they were. Their joy, their kindness to me, their peace. And then they- and then I asked, ‘Well you seem like you have it all together.’ And they said, ‘Well, I have a relationship with Jesus.’” One, more in a Catholic way-with the Eucharist, and confession, you know devotion to Mary on and on. The other one, well the Word of God. But they both kind of double-teamed her. And she said: “I’m in. I’m in.”

And so, I gave her a Handbook of Prayer-the Rosary, and Morning Offering, and all those kinds- devotion to St. Joseph, the Stations of the Cross. And she said: “Oh my gosh, I’m so happy to have this!” I go, “Take it easy. You know, I don’t want to have to call the police. Just enjoy it.” But you know.

So, what happened here? Let’s look at this here. So, this is the first, this is kind of a template of what I’m supposed to do. And let's read here, “Again the next day, John was standing there and two of his disciples,” this is John the Baptist, “and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God.’”

So, he's telling these two disciples, “Behold the Lamb of God.” These two disciples happen to be the future St. Andrew and St. John the Evangelist. Okay, that's who these people are. John doesn't ever mention his own name. At best, he'll say “the one whom the Lord loved,” but he doesn't mention his name, his own name. “‘Behold the Lamb of God,’ and the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.” So, John the Baptist, basically, they were followers of John. They were impressed with John, John the Baptist. 

And John said, “That's my secret. Go, go after him. That's, that's, that's my driving force, the Lamb of God, right there. Go meet him. I want you to meet him. That's what I'm all about.” And because of their respect and their relationship with John the Baptist, they introduced themselves to Jesus. So, let's continue, “But Jesus turned around and seeing them following him, said to them, ‘What is it you seek?’ They said to him, ‘Rabbi,’ which is interpreted, ‘Master, where do you live?’” 

So, you notice that Jesus doesn't say, “Hey, listen, repent and believe in the Gospel.” He doesn't say that. He doesn't say, “Listen, if you want to be saved, follow me.” What does he say? “Come and see. Give me a- come over. Come over to my house and let's- let's talk. Come and see. Give it a shot.” 

And so, the Gospel continues, “‘Come and see.’ And they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about the 10th hour.” Now, this is key. This- you know, sometimes we really have to kind of penetrate these words that come across so unsanctimonious. “They came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about the 10th hour.” When I was thinking about this meditation I was- I try not to serve leftovers or reheat my meditations, because I'm a little selfish. I get bored by preaching the same thing. So, I gotta, you know, change it around. But I want to look at this a similar topic, and see if I can get some more ideas. And I had, I found a loose paper here, and it's a quotation from St. John Paul. So that paper was hanging around for a number of years, but anyway, I found it. 

Yeah, organization may not be my strong suit. So, “Yes dear brothers and sisters,” he says “our Christian communities must become genuine schools of prayer, where the meeting with Christ is expressed, not just in imploring help, but also in thanksgiving, praise, adoration, contemplation, listening in ardent devotion until the heart truly falls in love. Intense prayer, yes, but it does not distract us from our commitment to history. By opening our heart to the love of God, it also opens it to the love of our brothers and sisters and makes us capable of shaping history according to God's plan.”

In other words, it makes us capable of preach, of spreading the Gospel. What did they do? Well, let's translate it into our own circumstances. They hung around with Jesus. We can even translate it by saying they adored the Eucharist. They went to his house and spent the afternoon with the Lord. I'm not saying, you know-that- resolution: spend a whole afternoon with the Lord. The point here is, if you're going to evangelize first, and that was what- big message of John Paul is, you got to hang around with Jesus. You need to be a man of prayer. 

And it has to be centered on the Holy Eucharist. It's kind of interesting to note, I was, I don't know he came up a number of times. He's worked some local miracles, and he was the Prelate of Opus Dei when I was studying for the priesthood in Rome. And so, I'm bragging. I knew- now I know a blessed, Blessed Alvaro. And his image is in St. Mary's. He prayed that the Church of St. Mary's be entrusted to priests of Opus Dei, unbeknownst to anybody. 

It was on a cold winter evening, he wanted to pray to the Blessed Mother. And you know, he- he got permission to come into this church, which was kind of condemned at the time. You know, it was dangerous. He couldn't go in there unless he had special permission, because the ceiling, you know, the plaster of the ceiling, was coming down. And anyway, so he's praying. And I was, I was recalling a biography I read in Spanish. This biography, you know, knowing a blessed so, yeah, I'm always interested in details about his life. And he was an engineer by trade, and it was during this Spanish Civil War, and he was stationed to repair a bridge with his team. 

And in this book is a quotation from a letter he wrote to St. Josemaria. So it's saint to saint. And he's lamenting that he's cutting corners in his spiritual life. And the reason why he's cutting corners- because he's so busy with- with the war effort and repairing these roads and repair- repairing these bridges, that he's been dis- little bit disorganized and not giving enough priority to his spiritual life. So, he tells that to the St. Josemaria.

The letter continues, he says, “Well, this is- these are the changes I'm going to make.” And just to cut to the- to summarize a little bit. I mean, the resolutions he made- and the- was three rosaries a day. And he was kind of an officer. And he was complaining that he was exhausted, you know, physically exhausted with all the things he had to do. He would go- he said, “I'm going to make sure I go to Mass every day.” 

So he needed special permission to go to Mass. And he told in this letter, “I'm going to spend an hour, half hour in the morning, a half hour in the evening, in silence with Our Lord, and then after I'm done, I'm going to write letters to my buddies back home. And then I'm going to then I'm going to retire, because I'm, I'm pretty tired.” All right, next and last act, he gets special permission to go to Mass. It's a- it's a long- it's a ways away. And by the time they leave that location, the book says he had 30 soldiers accompanying him for daily Mass. 

And then- he was- he had to change units, and they wrote on a blackboard in the barracks. These are guys his own age. You know, when I knew him, he was very –I mean I couldn't imagine they got- he would get beatified. I thought he was great, wonderful, very charitable. But, you know, I didn't think that, you know, one day he would, you know, be beatified with hundreds of 1000s of people there. I was there for that. He said, “Well, we've, oh, Alvaro- lieutenant- what was that- Portillo has left us. We've lost a father.”

Now, he was the same age as these guys. So, what's going on here? What's the point here? I want to- who, who am I supposed to evangelize? And what does it mean to evangelize? Do I put people on- do I become a travel agent for a guilt trip? No. Do I become the moral conscience? I mean, we stand up for the truth, but we don't overdo it. Am I the moral conscience of every group of people I encounter? No, I'm not. Do I befriend people and give them an experience of the heart of Jesus? And if I get an opening, I say, “Listen, you know, I have a relationship with Christ. If I can help you out, I'll help you out. I spend time in prayer. I use this book,” whatever. Everybody's different. 

So, you- each, each, each encounter is very unique. But it is as these two young people said, the guy didn't say, he didn't say, “Well, you know, my friend, my friend's dad, told me this, this and this,” no, “My dad's friend was a witness of kindness and of fatherly affection.” And the girl said, “My friends were really good- they were cheerful and kind to me, and they let me know why they were happy people.” So, it's we- it's not just transmitting true facts, that's easy. It is reflecting that heart of Jesus that can only come from prayer.  

And so, they hang out with him, and what happens after that? Let's read, “They came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about the 10th hour.” Why did Blessed Alvaro bring 30 guys? And don't, it's not a question, “Well, I don't bring anybody to mass. What's wrong with me?” That's not the question to ask. But what I want to emphasize here, starting with myself, is that he spent time in prayer. And so, you know, something happened. He witnessed he- and it was a long walk. It was not easy that I get up early and go to Mass. He hung around with Our Lord. 

“Now Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who had heard John and had followed him. He found first his brother Simon, and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah,’ which is interpreted Christ. And he led him to Jesus.” How did the guy- how did the church start? Well, Andrew got his brother Peter to meet Our Lord. And John, he doesn't mention his name, but tradition has it, is John the Evangelist who brings his brother James. James and John, Andrew and Peter. And how did they- how did Andrew convince Peter? Well, he hung around with Jesus that afternoon. 

And we do see a pattern here. It's not- okay, you know, you're- maybe you're reading through this more than you need to. What happened with Simon of Cyrene? What does the Gospel say? He was the father of Alexander and Rufus, who appear in the New Testament. He helped Jesus carry the Cross. The Samaritan woman, she hung around with our- the Lord. And what does she do? She brings a town of people. And the people don't say because she has wisdom, and because of her words, her insights, her theological insights, they say because of the testimony, the witness of the woman. That there was something, there was a transformation that happened in that woman that brought that person. 

St. Josemaria says, one of the purposes of Opus Dei, he said, “Is to bring what is new and old in the Gospel to the forefront of our lives.” And what he emphasizes is that, you know, we all are called to spread Christianity to others by our example and by our word, but mostly by our example, by our love. And he says here, “Christ has taught us, in a definitive way, how to make this love of God real.” He says, “Apostolate,” which is evangelization, just a different word, “Apostolate is love for God that overflows and communicates itself to others. The interior life implies growth and union with Christ in the Bread and in the Word. Apostolate is the precise and necessary outward manifestation of interior life. When one tastes the love of God, one feels burden with the weight of souls. There is no way to separate interior life from apostolate.”

I remember a recent conversation, this is my last anecdote, we’ll wind the meditation down. We- someone was talking about- asking me questions about the- the late 60s. And this, those who are my age and older can identify with it. There was a famous concert in New York State. My mother would never let me go. And it was called Woodstock, all right. And instead of sacraments, a lot of drugs and psychedelic drugs and all that. “Make love, not war,” I don't think they- love didn't exactly mean the infused theological virtue of charity. So basically, to cut to the chase, it was a den of iniquity with great rock music, which is now classical rock. 

And so that was the icon of that generation, of that period of time. The kind of- with the implicit rebellion there, protesting against the war, and kind of rejecting authority and moral teaching of natural law, etc. And so that was the icon, all right. That was the symbol of the younger generation of the late 60s and the 70s. Fast forward to 1993 and I'm a World Youth Day Director. And I’m in charge of this big church in Denver. And the Holy Father is- is coming to Denver for World Youth Day. The Press discourages that, criticizes that event, that it's going to backfire. There's going to be very little interest, that the Pope is not in sync with the young Americans. He's going to come up with these moral decrees that are very jarring for the American culture, on and on. 

So, he comes and even myself, when I was being first introduced to this big church I was supposed to oversee just for three or four days that, you know, “Just greet people know where the fast-food restaurants are.” And I asked, “Well, how about confession and Eucharistic Adoration and the Mass?” “No, no, don't worry about that. Just be welcoming.” I go, “Okay.” You know, “Just be welcoming. Smile.” They told me to smile. “Okay, I can do that. Not too bad.” “And then lock the church and open the church.”

Well, anyway, last minute, six weeks before the World Youth Day, the diocese, Archdiocese of Denver says “Rome,” whoever Rome is, “Rome wants Eucharistic Adoration, wants confession, wants Masses. I'm so sorry, Father, we should have given you more advanced notice, but we just found out ourselves too.” So anyway, it was non-stop confession for four days. There was a million kids. People were, I was getting in trouble with youth ministers because I was throwing them out of the church to have other groups come in for Eucharistic Adoration. This is a nationwide thing. And- and so, “Okay, you're done. Other people want to pray. You got to leave.” “Oh, you have some nerve- that’s doing this to us.” I go, “Yeah, I know, but we have a whole nation who wants to come here.” 

Okay, so- but my point is, I remember in Rome, people in the know, you know, living in Rome, you find out, also, you get all sorts of information, if you keep your eyes peeled, your ears peeled as well, that he would they, you know, it was kind of humorous that they couldn't find the Holy Father in his bedroom. And it was, you know, 1:30 in the morning they knew he wasn't, you know, whooping it up in the city because, you know, you couldn't get past the Swiss Guards. Everything, you know, it's kind of a fortress. 

And- but it became kind of standard. He- they finally found him in the chapel prostrate in front of the Blessed Sacrament for hours. Not, you know, we're not called to that. We don't have that kind of mystical power, mystical grace. But I'm just saying that we gotta connect- we want, Lord, we want to connect the dots. There were a million kids there, and there was non-stop confession. And these weren't, you know, kids who went, you know, every month, this is virtually the first time. Why? Because the power of encountering Christ in an intimate way, in prayer is the secret to evangelization. It's, it's not charm, it's not, you know, if we have those talents, use them. But that's not the most important. 

I mean, the essential thing is what these guys did. “‘Come and see.’ They came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about the 10th hour.” They stayed with him. And then subsequently, one brings James, the other one brings Peter. And then if you, if you go a little bit further into that Gospel, Nathaniel, who will become Bartholomew, brings his buddy, Philip. And Philip, you know, kind of a Jewish sense of humor, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” And what does Nathaniel say? “Philip, come and see.” And then Philip became an apostle. 

Let's end our prayer going to the Blessed Mother. She's always there. She's always in the background. We have Jesus really- evangelization began with her. She brought Jesus into the world. Jesus, Mary, pray for us so that we connect those dots, that I can evangelize my, you know, those who are married, their spouses, children, friends, colleagues, to the degree that I deal with your son, convert me to that idea, and then help me make concrete- concrete resolutions. 

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations which you have communicated to me in this meditation. I ask your help to put them into effect. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.