16/01/2011 - 2ND. SUNDAY IN ORDINARY SEASON - Year A
1Reading Is 49,3.5-6 Psalm 39 2nd Reading 1 Cor 1,1-3 Gospel Jn 1,29-34
We have come to an end of the Christmas Season contemplating the various manifestations
of Jesus as Son of God and as Messiah. Now, helped by the Gospel Readings, we pick
up again the public ministry of Jesus that prepares him for the passion and ressurection.
Today it's John the Baptist that tells us about him. It is interesting to underline
how Jesus didn't want to present himself, but was presented and showed by a prophet
like John. He saw him and showed him to his own disciples with those significant
word that we repeat during every eucharistic celebration. They are important words
and it is necessary that we come to know their meaning. The Forerunner uses a very
eloquent image which was well known by the Jews and then by those who heard him.
He shows Jesus with the title "Lamb of God, " and adds, "who takes
away the sin of the world. " When it comes to lamb every Jew instinctively
think of different Biblical episodes. First of all, they would definitely remember
the lamb given by God to Abraham, to be sacrificed instead of his son Isaac. The
lamb is then always present in the life of the Jewish people: it's the "Passover"
every family sacrifices every year for a perpetual memory of the one killed in Egypt.
The blood of that lamb, sprinkled on the doorposts, has saved all the families from
the death of the firstborn, therefore from the worst curse imaginable. The meat
of the same lamb, roasted, had nourished the people in his effort of escape from
slavery. The way it was eaten was a ritual that bring the various family members
together, bond them in prayer and in faith in the living God, a friend of the poor
and the oppressed. The same image of the lamb also recalled that every year it was
symbolically loaded with the sins of the people and then released in the desert,
abandoned to wild beasts.
Jesus is the Lamb of God: he offered himself to God for us to replace us, to "atone"
for our sins. He offered himself to be sacrificed to save with his own blood every
family and all the people from slavery in which he has fallen because of the sins
of all, and gives his own life as food to us, that we may walk in the wilderness
of this world in full freedom. He, like food, is a the bond of each of us with God
and with others. He took upon himself not only of the sin of the people of Israel,
but of all the world, and gave himself to be killed in order to save us from the
curse.
Who knows what would John the Baptist say about Jesus! Over and above this revelation,
he still shows us his amazement when he saw a dove descending and remaining on him,
a dove, which he understood to be the Holy Spirit. He adds what he has been revealed,
namely that Jesus is the one "who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. " That
is why the baptism that he celebrated for the multitudes of sinners is just a preparation
for the one that was to be given by Jesus himself: a baptism not only of conversion
from evil and sin, but a baptism to go to new life that is rooted in the heart of
God, wrapped and filled with his Spirit.
Listening to John who speaks of " the sin of the world", it comes to ask
whether this word is still relevant today. Today one avoids to speak of "sin
", as if naming a crime. But if one does not speak of sin, even Jesus comes
to loose, in the knowledge we have of him, his fundamental role of being the Savior
of mankind and the world. And if this happens, we'll try other "wise people,
" such as Confucius or Buddha, and we place Jesus in their midst. No, we proclaim
that Jesus came to free us from sin. We are sinners, we commit sins and everyone
around us commit them. The evil who is hurting people is the consequence of sins,
and of very serious sins. They include adultery, abortion, injustice, drug abuse,
lots of entertainment and endless self-interest are sinful. Adults and young people
have become accustomed to certain practices which are contrary to God's commandments.
Although habits have become widespread, they are sinful, and we are not able to
get rid of their harmful effect. We need a savior, who obtain for us the forgiveness
from God and give us light and grace to lift us up and begin a life where love is
always burning.
St. Paul, of whom we, today, start reading the first letter to the Corinthians,
presents himself as an apostle of Jesus, whose name must be accepted and called
on to receive salvation. He knows that salvation is that from sin: he himself, who
was to declare himself a great sinner, experienced what it means to be saved by
Jesus; that is why now, grateful, he wants to make him known to other sinners! "Lamb
of God who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us! "