Coming to know Jesus

''My soul is thirsting for the living God: when shall I see him face to face?'' This is the response to the Psalm in today's mass and it is also the fundamental question for our spiritual life. Where do I find Jesus? The answer that Jesus himself gives us in the gospel is so unexpected that the listeners in the synagogue were enraged and tried to get rid of him by pushing him over a cliff. He tells the people in Nazareth that they will not always find him where they would expect to. The army commander Naaman went to Israel seeking a cure for leprosy. He was expecting that the prophet Elisha would recognize his position and come out to meet him and cure him in a personal way. But no, Elisha sends him to bathe in the insignificant Jordan river. So Jesus is telling us that we will meet him not just in big ceremonies but in the least of his brothers and sisters. In his first letter, John tells us that ''No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us and his love is truly in our hearts.'' (1 John 4:12) So in this 3rd week of Lent let our effort be to see Jesus in the person next to us as we give full attention to him or her, listening to what they are really saying or feeling and by valuing them we will discover Jesus in them and in ourselves.