Behold the Lamb of God

2^nd Sun. Ordinary Time Year B

Jn 1:35-42

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope that you all had a most joyous Christmas celebration and are already experiencing the blessings of 2012. Although we are in the liturgical season of “Ordinary Time”, the Gospels for these weeks that follow the Christmas Season definitely follow the theme of “Epiphany” the manifestation of God’s glory among us in His incarnate Son. Today Jesus begins to gather His first disciples. John the Baptist points Him out, “Behold the Lamb of God!”. The purity of St. John always impresses me. Never does he claim glory for himself, but always he gives it to Christ. And what is the result? His disciples leave him to follow after the true Lamb of God. Soon John’s other disciples will complain that everyone is going over to Jesus. But John will answer that Jesus must increase and John himself must decrease. Those of us who have authority would do well to take John the Baptist for our model. All of our teaching and mentoring must lead others not to ourselves but to Jesus otherwise it is for naught. We must rejoice when our children grow up, our students graduate, our subordinates advance. It should be our joy that we are instruments of God’s grace for the people entrusted to our care. The Gospel says that John looked at Jesus walking by. Let us too keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. He is our reward for any good we do. As long as we have Him, we need nothing else.