Baptism - Second Sunday of the Year - Suffering Servant/Lamb of God [January 20]
| 1st. Reading | : | Isaiah 49:3, 5-6 |
| 2nd Reading | : | Corinthians 1: 1-3 |
| Gospel | : | John 1: 29-34 |
Fr. Jude Botelho is currently undergoing open-heart surgery. Please pray for a successful operation and a rapid recovery.
Dear Friend,
Many people are known not by their name but by their nickname and sometimes the nicknames indicate who the person is. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was most widely known as Mahatma. Margaret Thatcher as the Iron Lady, and St.Theresa as the Little Flower. Jesus Christ too was given names like the Lamb of God, the Servant of God, and the Lord, indicating the roles he performed or fulfilled as he lived on earth. What name do we give Jesus? How have we known him? Have a God-discovering weekend!
- Fr. Jude
The first reading is part of the well-known Servant Songs. In it the servant himself speaks and tells of God’s message to him. Before his birth itself he was set apart and chosen by God to bring Israel, God’s people, back to him, to lead them from sin and infidelity to a life worthy of their vocation. But even this did not exhaust the Servant’s vocation. He was to bring the light of salvation to the pagans and bring redemption to all men, to the very ends of the earth. The exile of the Israelites among the pagans of Babylon brought the realization that God was not only for the Jews but also for all men.
Best Service
A father and his young daughter were great friends, and much in each other’s company. Then the father noted a change in his daughter. If he went for a walk, she excused herself from going. He grieved about it, but could not understand. When his birthday came, she presented him with a pair of exquisitely worked slippers, saying, “I have made them for you with my own hands, Dad!” Then he understood what had been the matter for the past three months. He said, “My darling, I like these slippers very much, but next time, buy the slippers and let me have you with me every day. I would rather have YOU with me than anything that you can make for me! –What we are is more important than what we do!
- Adapted from G. Campbell Morgan
In the second reading from Paul to the Corinthians he speaks to the Corinthians about how faith has to be lived and practiced amidst the pagan culture that engulfs them. They should be God’s Church in Corinth not the Church of Corinth. He reminds them that they have been made holy in Christ. The Christian’s source of strength is their union with Christ. Paul’s wish for his readers is that they would enjoy the grace and peace that comes only from God. Grace is God’s favour to mankind in redeeming him, while peace is the result of living united with God and with one’s neighbour. The challenge and invitation to the people of Corinth and to us is to live in fidelity to God and to his Church.
Willing To Sacrifice
Sarojini, a nurse at Beach Hospital was taking her morning shower when she heard screams coming from the street. Quickly changing, she saw to her horror a little girl being dragged across the street by two stray dogs. The child was covered with blood. Sarojini rushed out and managed to snatch the girl from the dogs. But the dogs would not give up. Suddenly jumping up they managed to get a good hold of the girl and jerked her from Sarojini’s hands. As soon as she fell to the ground, the dogs began to bite her on the head, hands, and stomach. Sarojini jumped on top of the girl and lay flat on her, protecting the girl from the dogs, using her body as a shield. Now the dogs began attacking Sarojini. She was in agony as they dug their teeth into her hip and thighs. But Sarojini did not move, all the while attempting valiantly to kick the dogs with both her legs. Meanwhile two people came running from nearby houses with heavy sticks in their hands and managed to beat the dogs and chase them away. A passing van was stopped and picking Sarojini and the little girl, sped away to Beach Hospital where the girl underwent six hours of surgery and Sarojini four. It took six months for their wounds to heal. “I never regretted what I did,” said Sarojini. “I’ll do it again if needed!”
- C.P. Varkey in ‘If He and She Can….’
John wrote his gospel to give his community a deeper faith in Jesus and a deeper understanding of the kind of Messiah Jesus was. Today’s Gospel gives us the witness of John the Baptist to Jesus. As John sees Jesus coming towards him, he points out to Jesus as the Lamb of God. This expression, which John uses, combines many different conceptions from the Old Testament. Surely the allusion to the Lamb reminded the Israelites of the many lambs that were sacrificed daily in the temple and the lamb of the paschal sacrifice. There is the reference that was made by Isaiah to the Suffering Servant led like a lamb to the slaughter as a sacrifice for sin. One could recall the sacrifice of Abraham where God provided the lamb for sacrifice. The Lamb of God challenges us to make sacrifices similar to his for love of our neighbour. In referring to Jesus as the Lamb he is also being designated as the Servant of Yahweh, who became the servant of all. Besides being pointed out as the Lamb of God and the suffering servant, Jesus is also designated as Lord. As the Lord he is the goal of human history and the centre of the human race. John the Baptist would say of him: A man coming after me who ranks before me because he existed before me. He witnesses to Jesus as the Chosen one of God. We too are called to witness and profess our faith in Jesus by our words and by our deeds. But our witness will ring true if we have experienced Jesus as our Lord and if we follow his example of service to the point of sacrifice.
Lamb Of God
A tourist visited a church in Germany and was surprised to see the carved figure of a lamb near the top of the church's tower. He asked why it was there and was told that when the church was being built, a workman fell from a high scaffold. His co-workers rushed down, expecting to find him dead. But to their surprise and joy, he was alive and only slightly injured. How did he survive? A flock of sheep was passing beneath the tower at the time, and he landed on top of a lamb. The lamb broke his fall and was crushed to death, but the man was saved. To commemorate that miraculous escape, someone carved a lamb on the tower at the exact height from which the workman fell. -That expresses a tiny bit of what it means when John says "Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world" The sense indicated by Isaiah with his promise of one "who will bring salvation to the ends of the earth". And with it's visible symbol, the carving on the bell tower that gives testimony to what happened, it expresses a tiny bit of another important part of the gospel reading today - that of John calling out to his own disciples - and to all those who would hear his voice: "Look - the Lamb of God."
- Richard Fairchild in ‘Sermon and Liturgy’
“To take our baptismal vows seriously we are to follow Jesus as sacrificial lambs. We Christians must make all kinds of sacrifices. We sacrifice an easy logical and scientific view of the world and life. We cannot prove our faith; we make a leap of faith. It is based on reason but logic cannot take us there. Belief in God and Jesus means we sacrifice the popular and all too easy way of simple logic. Many call us fools. We are fools for Christ's sake. We sacrifice conventional wisdom and believe that power comes from weakness. We Christians are called to be advocates for the poor and homeless in a society that cherishes lavish lunches and luxurious living. We support legislation that brings food to the hungry and changes the system so that no one goes hungry. But Christian lambs are called to do some other painful and difficult things. We are to love our enemies. We need to get our political leaders to sit down and talk with so-called terrorists. There are as many different kinds of terrorists as there are American citizens. They are not all extremists. They differ widely about proper tactics and means to carry out their agendas. Our government apparently treats all so-called terrorists as if they are all the same.”
– Rev. Robert Warren Cromey
Nathan’s story- From the Second Book of Samuel
Two men were citizens of the same town. The one man was rich and powerful, the other poor and helpless. The rich man had great flocks of sheep. He had so many sheep that he lost count of them. The poor man, on the other hand, had only one tiny sheep. But the poor man’s children loved the lamb. They played with it all day long. They even brought it to table to share the little food they had. Nathan says they even taught the lamb to drink from a cup. The lamb was like a member of the family. One day an important visitor came to the rich man’s house. But the rich man didn’t want to kill any of his own lambs to feed the guest. So he had his servant go over to the poor man’s house, take the poor man’s lamb, and slaughter it to feed his guest. – This moving story of the rich man’s cruelty and callousness was one of the images John the Baptist had in mind when he pointed a bony finger at Jesus and said to his disciples, “there is the lamb of God.” Nathan’s story of the poor man’s pet lamb certainly fitted Jesus. Jesus, too, was deeply loved. He too was to be cruelly slain by evil men.
- Mark Link in ‘Sunday Homilies’
The Sacrifice
A gardener had a cluster of tall bamboos in one corner of his park. One day the gardener looked over the group of bamboos, stood before the tallest and said, “My dear friend, I need you.” “Sir’ said the bamboo, “use me in any way you want. I am ready.” “But”, said the gardener, “in order to use you, I’ve got to split you in half.” “Split me?” reacted the bamboo. “Why? I’m the nicest bamboo in this garden. No please! Use me as you like but don’t split me in half.” “Well it’s like this: If I can’t split you in half, I can’t use you.” The stately bamboo bowed its head and whispered. “Sir, if the only way to use me is to split me in half, do it.” “But”, said the gardener, “that’s only part of it.” “I’m going to cut off all your branches and leaves too. What’ worse I will have to take away even your heart and your insides, otherwise, I cannot use you.” The bamboo bent all the way to the ground and said, “Sir, cut and prune me as you wish.” So the gardener cut down the bamboo, lopped off the branches, and leaves, split it down the middle, and then hollowed out its insides. Then he carried it out through the parched fields and brought it to a spring of water. He connected the bamboo with the spring and let it carry the water to the fields and make them fruitful. And so it was that when the bamboo had been cut down, dismembered and split right down the middle it became a source of great blessing to the people.
- Willi Hoffsuemmer in ‘Tonic for the heart’
May we give witness to Jesus as Lord by sacrificial lives!
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