Come and see

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today appear to set two different backgrounds for the believer to follow Christ. The first letter of John has a dualistic tone. We are told that those who do right are righteous and those who do wrong are children of the devil. The experience we have is that those trying to journey toward holiness and wholeness are also burdened with addictive sin which diverts our journey. When the compass on the journey points toward a deeper relationship with Jesus we are acting as children of God. Conversely, when the compass points away from the path on which Jesus is walking, we are children of the devil. The Gospel of John captures the interest of the disciples of John the Baptist in actually traveling to where Jesus lives. He invites them and us to "come and see". Our movement in that direction will be life changing as we read Jesus changing the name (and essence? direction?) of Simon to Cephas (Peter). Change is the dynamic which is overlooked when we restrict our thinking to dualistic comparisons. We are gifted with the free will to change, move and follow.