Those of you who follow my blog surely have noticed that the "video" blog that I had been doing on Sundays has not appeared ever since the end of Advent. Unfortunately, taping my Sunday homilies is not currently an option for me. Perhaps it will become so again at some point in the future.
Ordinary Time brings with it the continuous reading of one of the synoptic Gospels on Sundays. However, the first Sunday of Ordinary Time (or Sunday in the second week of Ordinary Time) always presents us the opportunity to plumb the depths of St. John before we launch into the synoptic. I would describe this particular Sunday an attempt to enjoy the "afterglow" of the Advent/Christmas Season. The roaring fire of the infancy narratives has burned itself out. However, before we move on, we sit before the fireplace that is the Gospel and enjoy the dying embers of that warming blaze. Today "John the Witness" introduces his disciples to the adult Jesus. While the lectionary version of this passage says that "John the Baptist" saw Jesus coming toward him, the text of the Gospel does not actually identify John in this fashion. John the Evangelist records that John baptized. However, he never calls him John the Baptist. In this Gospel John is a witness, one who offers testimony. One commentator goes so far as to call John a "forensic witness."
The science of forensics is very popular at this point in our cultural history. There are so many television shows that highlight this science: the various incarnations of CSI and a couple of different NCIS series as well to name a few. The protagonists of these scripts study the various clues left behind by the antagonists and try to bring them to justice. They have all the modern gadgets available to analyze DNA, fingerprints, blood spatter, tread patterns, etc. These clues point them in the direction of the wrongdoers, revealing who has committed the crime.
The Gospel does not relate how St. John came to identify Jesus as "the Lamb of God." There is a very good reason for this. He could not possibly have discovered this on his own. History records that John the Baptist dies at the hands of Herod before Jesus lays down his life for us. So the words that we hear today are very probably not his words. They are, instead, the witness of the community of faith from which this Gospel springs. We know that the Gospel of John appears at least seventy years after Jesus returned to the Father. During those seventy years, the Christian community had reflected on the Jesus event and came to the conclusion that Jesus died for those who came after him. He had died to take away the sin of the world.
Notice that the Gospel does not say that Jesus died for the "sins" of the world the way we do when we pray the litany in our communion rite. The Gospel uses the singular and does not refer to the various infractions, flaws, and errors that you and I make and then confess. The Gospel is referring to something far more important. God's creation had begun in total harmony. God had looked upon what God had done and said, "This is good." When God fashioned us, the human component of creation, God said, "This is very good." However, sin had brought discordant notes into the harmony of creation. Disorder interjected itself into the Order of God's creation. Jesus, the Lamb of God takes away that sin and restores the harmony. Jesus bridges the gap between the world of sin and the world of God's creation. Jesus makes it possible for us to remove ourselves from "the world" and to enter the reign of God.
The world does not yield to this easily. Through baptism we have crossed the bridge that is Jesus, but the temptations of the discordant world continue to attempt to lure us back to the other side of the bridge. The Gospel points us in the right direction. Our faith is our shield against these temptations. However, you and I are simply not strong enough to resist on our own. The only one who has fought against the world of sin and won the contest is Jesus. If we hope to win, it can only happen when we recognize Jesus as our Savior, when we accept the testimony of John and follow Jesus as John's disciples did.
To tap into the strength of Jesus in this constant struggle against the lure of sin, we come to the table of the Lord where we eat and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus. Like all of the people of faith who have come before us, including the community out of which this Gospel springs, we testify to the world that Jesus is the sacrificial Lamb of God and that his flesh and his blood are the food that nourishes us and strengthens us as we cross the bridge from this world into God's reign.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator