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Commentary of the Gospell
Read: Isaiah reminds us that God has called us share the good news of his love and salvation. As Paul writes, we are called to be holy, following the example of Jesus and preparing his way. John the Baptist calls Jesus the Lamb of God who gave his life as a sacrifice so that we might live forever.
Reflect: We are called to holiness, to become saints with God in heaven. There is no single path to holiness. God calls some people to be priests or consecrated religious. He calls many to marry and raise families. Others remain single. Whatever our state of life, we are called to wake up every day with a firm commitment to follow Jesus more closely and to place our gifts at the service of our brothers and sisters.
While it may seem simple in theory, loving and serving our brothers and sisters is not easy. It requires time, care, energy, and a willingness to place our needs second to those of others. We can do this only through God’s grace, given to us by the same Spirit who descended on Jesus.
Pray: Dear God, please give me your grace to make me holy and to help me follow your Son Jesus more closely.
Act: Be particularly attentive to opportunities to serve those in need.
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«This is the Lamb of God»
The forerunner of the Lord, John the Baptist, presents Jesus to us today with a title: «This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world» (Jn.1,29), which means: I announce partial remedies, but I cannot cure the root, you come to me, but in reality it is him, Jesus, you are looking for, this is the real Saviour. The only reason for a Christian community is to bear witness to Jesus Christ, and we must remember that not everything we as believers live and do bears witness in our favour. The Church can attract people to God, but it can also drive them away. If we are not witnesses of God, we do not show his saving love. This is the great problem we have in our world: the lack of living witnesses of God.
The Baptist cannot stop the urgent witness of Jesus and therefore declares: «I have seen him and I bear witness». We too are invited to do as he did, so that others can experience an encounter with Christ and at the same time live as witnesses of the Son of God, that is, a journey of faith and friendship with Jesus as Master and Lord, Way, Truth and Life of mankind.
In every celebration of the Eucharist we invoke the «Lamb of God» three times with the words that John has told us in the Gospel. We ask God for mercy and peace. The people of Jesus’ culture knew that the sin of the world was a force more powerful than the will of man, and therefore only God could free them from sin. An innocent lamb symbolically bore the sins of the people, and the people felt free and reconciled with God. In Christianity there is no more animal sacrifice. God sent his sinless Son, he took upon himself the sins of the world and brought them to death once and for all. The love with which Christ accepted his redemptive death is the power that frees us from sin. If we look at Jesus as the one «sent by God to take away the sin of the world» we will have experienced a joyful liberation that will change our existence.
Prayer: Give us strength and courage, Lord, to follow you.
(Psalm 39) Here I am, Lord, to do your will.
HAPPY SUNDAY TO YOU ALL.