2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Homily, 1/16/05

See the final text of the homily here at the OLA website. You can listen, too.

---

Preliminary Notes. Please be aware that this is not a "draft text" for a homily, but my own thoughts as I am preparing. I welcome comments, suggestions, and further reflections.

Readings for the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Scripture References:

Gospel: John 1:29-34
First Reading: Isaiah 49:3, 5-6
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:1-3

The Lamb of God. It doesn't really mean what we usually think.

What do you think? What would John the Baptist's hearers have thought about that expression? How does it fit Jesus? When we say it in the Mass ("Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us / grant us peace"; "This is the Lamb of God . . ."), what does it mean?

Some scholars believe that the "Lamb of God" may have already been a liturgical expression by the time John's Gospel was written. The implication of this is that this phrase in the Gospel echoed what Christians were already saying (or singing) and hearing every time they celebrated the Eucharist. We often think that elements in our liturgy come from Scripture, but the reverse is almost certainly true as well. There is little documentation of early liturgical texts to prove this, but the formal and poetic style of many passages in the Gospels and the other writings of the New Testament indicates that their origin (or at least their transmission prior to being written down as Scripture) was in the "living word" celebrated in the Christian eucharistic assembly.

"Lamb of God" compares Jesus to the lamb of the Passover meal (the Seder), in which the liberation of God's people from slavery in Egypt wa celebrated annually. This was a home celebration, a meal, in which the ritually slaughtered and sacrificed lamb was eaten as the sign of the participants' continued participation in God's saving acts, forever made present ot his people. It is significant that the ritual Temple sacrifices in which animals were slaughtered and burned (holocaust) was not the type or prefigurement of Jesus' sacrifice, but the sacrifical meal.

Therefore, while the connection of this reading with Baptism is clear enough, there is also an important Eucharistic connection. This Jesus, of whom John testified and whose story is told every time Christians assemble, was being received in the meal of the Lord's supper as the Lamb of the New Passover. From the start, Christians were aware that they were not so much "offering sacrifices" at the Mass, but joining intimately with the one sacrifice of Christ by eating his body "given up for us" and drinking his blood "the blood of the New Covenant poured out for the forgiveness of sins."

At this the first Sunday Mass of Ordinary Time, the theme of the relationship between Baptism and Eucharist is established. A good thought for the Year of the Eucharist. My homily will probably try to further unfold that theme.