Behold the Lamb of God

Homily for Wednesday of the Second Week in the Christmas Season

I couldn’t help but notice yesterday when I went in for my physical therapy appointment that someone had taken all the Christmas decorations down. For most of the secular world, Christmas has come and gone. However, the Church beckons us to spend some more time considering the mystery of the incarnation, a core tenet of our faith.

Today’s Gospel text offers a specific moment that we are reminded of each Mass: the moment when John the Baptist sees Jesus and declares, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

By referring to Jesus as the Lamb of God, anyone who heard John would realize that Jesus would be sacrificed as a sin offering to black out the sins of God’s people. This little baby whose birth we have just celebrated was born for one purpose. As the third verse of the hymn: “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,” reminds us, Jesus was born “that we would die no more.” Jesus was born to be the sacrificial lamb whose complete and perfect gift of self would reconcile us to God.

Christmas cannot be separated from the Paschal Triduum. Christmas cannot be separated from Good Friday, or from Easter. The incarnation was the essential first step of Jesus’ role in salvation history, and it was proclaimed by John the Baptist when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River. We quote John at every mass as we pray, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”