“ We have found the Messiah ,” Andrew says to his brother Simon Peter. On Jesus' invitation to come and see , the disciples went and saw where he lived. While the gospel story does not tell us what they saw, it was compelling enough for Andrew, early next morning , to take Simon Peter to meet the Messiah.

We too experience that excitement when we encounter something – maybe a project, an organisation, a cause – that we have wanted to be involved with for a long time.

We may not know exactly what we are longing for, but when we find it, it resonates within us and like John the Baptist, we recognise it.

Sometime ago some colleagues came upon a reading programme for young students whose reading ability was below what it should have been.

As they became more and more involved in it, they saw the need for it to expand into more than teaching students to read. Like Jesus asking the disciples who followed him “ What do you want?” they had to ask themselves and their students what their real needs were.

Finding the answer to that question meant going and seeing where and how they lived. They had to come to understand the value or lack of value placed on education; the trauma of absentee parents; the exposure to experiences the students were not mature enough to deal with; the unavailability of support systems at home and in the community; the lack of trust in people, borne of unfulfilled promises.

Getting a glimpse into the lives of their students, meant that my colleagues had to widen the scope of the project, deciding what they could most effectively deal with. So the reading programme expanded to include a little library and then the library became a homework centre.

Finding the Messiah often involves someone, some John the Baptist pointing him out to us. In verse 36, we read Jesus passed, and John stared hard at him and said, ‘Look there is the Lamb of God .' He does not tell them what to do. John knew what his role was; he does not try to make the disciples dependent on him.

Sometimes we look for the Messiah and try to follow by doing things that will attract the attention of others around us. When the disciples went to see where Jesus lived, it was to the unnoticed everyday activities that they went.

Teaching students to read, guiding them with their homework, counselling them to deal with their seemingly insurmountable challenges are not headline-making stories. They go unnoticed, but make big differences in people's lives.

It seems strange that Jesus, having just met Simon Peter would give him a new name. In verse 42, we read: and he took Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked hard at him and said “You are Simon son of John; you are to be called Cephas” – meaning Rock.

Simon Peter must have understood Andrew's excitement and he too was convinced that they had indeed found the Messiah, when Jesus, looked at him acknowledging him and calling him by name.

In some of our large institutions, day-to-day activities have become so depersonalised that employees are known by numbers; in some of our schools, students and teachers do not get to know each other by name, some never hear their name called, even at graduation ceremonies, at which the large school population warrants attendance certificates be distributed in batches.

Recently, workplaces in an attempt to increase productivity have realised the value of calling employees by name. How Simon Peter's spirits must have soared when the Messiah called him by name; how those students in the reading programme must have come into their own when they could read their name and read a book even. They too have found the Messiah.

Prayer

Lord, thank you for passing by our way,
Thank you for the people you sent into our lives,
the students we taught who showed us where you live,
the families who after we spent time with them,
we knew had found the Messiah.

We pray for leaders of our country.
Invite them to come and see where you live.
And when they come,
let them not come with television cameras
but with open hearts and time to listen to you
and to get to know you by name.

Lord, forgive us for the times
we did not notice you as you passed by.
We did not see you in the rebellious student,
or the demanding family.

Send us more people like John the Baptist to stand with us
and point you out as you pass by.

Helena Allum, Arts Page columnist and proof reader at the Catholic News , is a teacher at Mucurapo Senior Comprehensive School .