20.01.2008 - Second Sunday OT -
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First Reading: Isaiah 49,3.5-6 Psalm 40 Second Reading: I Cor 1,1-3
Gospel Reading: John 1,29-34
Prayer for unity among Christians
I believe in God the Father! Through listening to Jesus we can get to know the loving, holy face of God. We need only think of the parable of the prodigal son or the lost sheep, where the Father is overjoyed to meet the sinner and has no intention of punishing him; or of the vineyard, where the Father is represented by the owner of the vineyard who personally cares for the fruit of the vines. We need only remember what Jesus tells us regarding forgiveness, for he knows that God is the first to grant it. The Father seems capable only of love: he makes the sun rise for the good and the bad! His love precedes man's ability to love or rather, it is God's love that awakens man's love and helps it grow: "your goodness makes me grow", says one of the Psalms! Even when we have the impression that God is punishing us, it is in reality, only love: he wants us to avoid excessive suffering caused by sin! Jesus reveals something about the Father in the prayer he teaches us which we know by heart! His name is to be "hallowed" and to do this he uses the beauty of our lives and our communion! His kingdom is to "come" and he uses us to bring it to earth. He has a "will" which can only be love and we are here to collaborate in fulfilling it. He has "daily bread" for us which helps both the individual and the community to grow; he has the ability to "forgive" and transforms our lives into joy! He is our ally in "temptations" and is always ready to "deliver us from evil"! I believe in God the Father!
Today's liturgy urges us to continue observing Jesus and the reflection of
his light in the face of John the Baptist, who speaks to his disciples and the
crowds about the one who is to come and whom he has seen and known and whom
he is loved by and who is necessary for all the world. He reveals his identity
through different images: "the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world", he on whom "the Spirit descends like a dove", he who
"baptises with the Holy Spirit", he who is called the "Son of
God"! All these images used to define Jesus are worth careful explanation.
The Hebrews understood perfectly well, for they were biblical images which evoked
their history and were full of the presence of God and his promise of salvation.
The lamb of God is an image of Easter and the lamb's blood which saved the people
in Egypt from the death of the first born. The scapegoat was also a lamb upon
which were laid all the sins of the people and which was then led out into the
desert to die. It was a lamb that was sacrificed on the altar to expiate the
sins of individuals. And always, it is its death which saves and purifies; it
is with its death that the lamb becomes important for everyone. In calling Jesus
the lamb of God John indicates that he will be killed and that through his death
he will become important for us.
In saying that the Spirit descended upon him like a dove, the creation of the
world is evoked when the Spirit hovered over the waters to bring order to the
initial chaos. Jesus, coming out of the water of the River Jordan where he was
baptised, begins to make the world the way God wanted it. A new world where
man does not flee from God, but looks for him, loves him and obeys him with
love and trust!
In saying "he who baptises with the Holy Spirit" John indicates that
Jesus is the fulfilment of Ezekiel's prophesy: this prophet gives God's promise
for a new life, a new heart, brought about by the Spirit of God that comes within
us. Baptism purifies and changes our lives; Jesus purifies us from within and
gives us that same Spirit that moves God's heart! Jesus' deed in favour of mankind
is totally new for it gives us participation in the divine life!
And finally in saying that Jesus is the Son of God John reminds us of the second
Psalm which says the Son of God will be given all people to rule over; he fulfils
the kingdom of God announced by David and prophesied by Daniel. Jesus is, therefore,
the king who does God's will in the world; to love men and women as a shepherd
loves his sheep and cares for them when they are sick or hurt, and gathers them
from where they have been scattered. The expression the Son of God reminds us
that in observing him we can see God himself, for ever childy is of the same
nature as the father.
May our lives fulfil the Church's prayer for the unity of Christians in Jesus!