Reflection/Homily: Second (2nd) Sunday in Ordinary Time of the Year A

Reflection/Homily: Second (2^nd) Sunday in Ordinary Time of the Year A

Theme: Behold the Lamb of God

Author: Uwakwe Chibuike

In the first reading (Is. 49:3, 5-6), the Prophet Isaiah through the prophecy of the “Suffering Servant” gives to the Israelite captives in Babylon a message of hope. This prophecy was meant to encourage them to remain steadfast in faith until the arrival of the One who will raise the tribes of Jacob and restore the survivors of Israel. This servant would be a light to the nations that the salvation of God might reach the ends of the earth. To achieve this, the suffering servant has to suffer and crush himself for those he has been sent to redeem. In Christ Jesus, we see the perfect fulfillment of this suffering servant. Sent by God to redeem mankind through the great sacrifice of the Cross, Jesus allowed himself to be dragged like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter (cf. Is. 53:7), where he slaughtered himself for our redemption. That was why in the gospel reading (John 1:29-34) when John saw Christ coming, he exclaimed “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” 

By pointing out to Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, John the Baptist reveals the identity and mission of Christ. Before Christ, lambs were special animals usually slaughtered in the temple for the remission of sins. Christ appeared not as a lamb or one of those lambs but as “THE LAMB” indicating a definite identity and as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” indicating a divine mission. Thus, the identity of Christ becomes that of an innocent victim and his mission is to be sacrificed for the forgiveness of our sins. As an innocent victim, Christ was prefigured in the Abrahamic sacrifice at Mount Moriah (cf. Gen. 22:1-19). In him, we find the true son of Abraham who is going to be sacrificed as an innocent victim with the wood he himself has carried and his blood would seal the covenant between God and man. 

Homily for the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)

Homily for the 2^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)

Theme: This Is the Lamb

Author: Silvester O’Flynn

Every time the Eucharist is celebrated the words of John the Baptist about Jesus are recalled: ‘Look, there is the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.’ The biblical writers had no hesitation about mixing their metaphors. Jesus is sometimes the shepherd of the flock and sometimes the lamb!

The image of Jesus as lamb grew out of a rich and complex vein of Jewish thought. The blood of the lamb, sprinkled on door posts, was the sign to save the Hebrew people from the destroying angel: that was when Moses led them out of their Egyptian slavery. The annual remembrance of that liberation became the Passover Feast, the climax of the Jewish year. Lambs in the great numbers were slaughtered and family groups ate the meat of yearling lamb in the sacred meal which bound them together in very close fellowship with one another and with God. They ate it standing, dressed for a journey.