My heart swells at the three simple words Philip speaks to Nathanael in today’s Gospel . . . come and see.
What an invitation . . . so simple, yet so profound. Three short words, yet full of an invitation to belong.
The Lord gives us countless opportunities to extend the very same invitation to the people around us. I have been prodded by the Holy Spirit to make this invitation to my friends in high school, to a college roommate, and to a fellow mother I met at church. The invitation may not be the actual words, “Come and see,” but it may sound something like:
I’m part of a great women’s group that meets on Wednesday, I’d love for you to stop by sometime.
Our family goes to Mass together every Sunday at 5, would you like to join us?
We do family dinners every Saturday with some friends from church, would you ever be interested in coming?
Can we pause and pray for you, right now?
When we make Philip’s invitation, we give the Lord space to work. When we make the invitation, we don’t have to have all the answers, we simply open the door to give someone in our life the opportunity to know the Jesus we know.
"Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (John 1:46) Yes. A person named Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us. May we be just like Philip to say to our co-workers, our siblings, the women in our neighborhoods . . . come and see.
May we, like Philip, make such bold invitations . . . and let Jesus take care of the rest.