Behold the lamb of God (second sunday-)

Behold the lamb of God

Good evening/morning every one, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Our special welcome to all our visitors today. Today we hear John the Baptist looking at Jesus and saying to his disciples and all others, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”. “Ecce Angus Dei....”

This happened before our Lord Jesus Christ was being baptized. As Christ was coming to river Jordan, John the baptized looked at Him and said, “Ecce Angus Dei... behold the lamb of God... He said that Jesus is the lamb of God because He is taking away the sins of the world.

The book of Exodus says when Moses went to king pharaoh asking the people of God to let go, he refused to let them go and then god brought so many natural calamities on the people of Egypt and then finally, God said to sacrifice a lamb and sprinkle the blood of the lamb on doorposts and thus when the angel passes, they will be saved. Thus the Passover happened.

What does all of this have to do with Jesus? The Gospel of John describes Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament Passover Lamb. In the Old Testament a lamb’s blood saved the Hebrews from disaster before they left Egypt and now the blood of Jesus, the New Passover Lamb, saves us from our sins.

And thus before giving out the Holy Eucharist, the priest showing the holy Eucharist says, “Behold the lamb of God.... namely He is the lamb of God, the only son of God, the one who is fully divine and fully human and He suffered and sacrificed Himself for the sake of humanity.
The Christ whose birth was foretold by many prophets and kings and whose birth was announced by angle Gabriel to Mary. As He was born, the shepherds in and around Bethlehem came to worship the new born King.
Even the wise men learned the exact time of His birth and came to worship Him offering gold, frankincense and Myrrh. He came to serve not to be served. He came as an innocent lamb of God.

Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Yes, He is not only taking away our original sin but also our actual sins. The sins that we commit because of our human frailties. The Holy Bible says even a holy man sins seven times a day and in order to say “No” to our sins and Yes to love, we need Christ the author of life who takes all our sins away and make us all holy and blameless in the sight of God our Father.

Then the priest says, ‘Blessed are those who are called to the supper of the lamb”. These words are found in the book of revelation where the word lamb is used more than thirty times. The apostle John who wrote the book of revelations invites us all to the supper where we share divine love, kindness and compassion.

Then we respond saying, “ Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof but only say the word my soul shall be healed”.

These biblical verse was used by Centurion as he came to Christ our Lord one day and bowed before Him saying, “Lord, I know and believe that you are the Holy one of God and you do miracles and wonders in the name of your Father. My servant is at the point of death and please help me”. Christ the Lord said, ‘I shall come with you”. When the Centurion heard the immediate availability of Christ, He was overjoyed and was happy. Yes, dear friends, when we go to the Lord and submit ourselves to Him completely, we will begin to experience unending joy and happiness because Christ does everything for us. He said, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof but only say the word my servant will be healed “ and instantly the servant got healed.

Every time we come to Church, we receive instant healing of our body and soul. we receive blessings upon blessing. So let us celebrate Christ who is the true lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.