2nd Sunday in ordinary Time Year A

Last Sunday we celebrated the baptism of the Lord and we began the ordinary time of the year. Ordinary time/ season invites us to live our ordinary life of holiness, that is, a life of faith and friendship with Jesus who is our life, truth, and teacher.

Once upon a time, there was a lamb that wandered in the forest alone after defying its mother’s warnings not to go to the forest since there were wolves there. As the lamb was moving about enjoying the forest, a wolf appeared and threatened to eat the lamb. While the wolf thought it was its lucky day, the lamb remembered the warning from its mother. Trying to escape from the impending danger the lamb decided to jump into the stream of water running down towards home. When the wolf noticed the lamb’s intelligence it persuaded it with nice words to come out of the stream, but the lamb kept moving down the stream. While the lamb was moving down the stream the woodcutters appeared and scared away the wolf and the lamb was saved from death.

In today’s gospel John points at Jesus as the Lamb of God. In doing this John invites us to reflect on who is Jesus for us and what it means being a lamb of God. Isaiah calls him the servant of the Lord God and Christians have long identified him with Jesus who was formed by God in the womb and was sent in the world as the light of the nations. The Psalmist portrays a servant who worships God with an open ear and with a spirit that takes joy in service.

Coming back to what John refers to by referring to Jesus as the Lamb of God, we can say that our human condition is referred to in the scriptures as sin, idolatry, alienation from God and as brokenness and exile. Therefore, with Jesus the lamb that takes away our sins, we can behold him as the repairer of the brokenness of the human heart through his grace and peace as implied by Paul in the second reading. Thus, Jesus is our true symbol of the lamb that helps us receive God’s free gifts. He is the lamb that saves us from sin by giving away his life. Consequently, we too, like the Corinthians, we have a calling to be holy and to lead a life of prayer.

Christian Action this Week: Pray for the grace of openness of ear and heart and ask for the grace to remain faithful in our Christian calling.

Joy and Peace