What do we really want?

To the sources

From John 1:29-42 (Year A: Epiphany + 2)

The search for something can begin in the simplest of ways. A lost object, a fond memory, an unresolved conflict, an aching sense that something is not quite right …. ‘What do you want’ asks Jesus in this passage. He could be asking this of each one of us day by day. What do we want? Really? Answering that requires focus, honesty and courage. Much of the time we don’t even know what we want because we are too busy to examine what it is that we seek.

Facing up to those things that we really seek is a form of liberation. The truth will set you free as is written later in this Gospel. In some forms of Eastern mysticism liberation from desire is the highest form of freedom. Echoes of this are found in strands of Western mysticism. A wise counsel is to ‘know thyself’ (Another might also help). Then we can discern which goals and which desires are really worth giving our lives for. Only then we can face, with complete abandonment the question: ‘do you seek me with all your heart?’ All.

Where then do we begin?’ Meister Eckhart once asked.  ‘Begin with the heart’ was the reply.