Homily for Ordinary Sunday 2 A

"Behold, the Lamb of God."

I have Mass on Sunday, January 18 at St. Isidore @ 7:30/9:30 am. The 7:30 am Mass will be live-streamed. https://stisidore.church/worship-online/

frjoedailey@gmail.com

Transcript

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John. 

John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He is the one of whom I said, A man is coming after me, who ranks ahead of me, because he existed before me. I did not know him, but the reason why I came baptizing with water was that he might be made known to Israel. 

John testified further, saying, I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and remain upon him. I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, on whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain. He is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God. 

The Gospel of the Lord. 

This week on his podcast, The Spiritual Life, Jesuit Father James Martin had a conversation with Sister Helen Prejean, the author of Dead Man Walking. Sister Helen has been accompanying people on death row for more than 44 years. She told about an icon of the Annunciation that she keeps in her prayer space, tells the story of the angel Gabriel's call to Mary to be the mother of Jesus. And Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word."

Angels usually come to us unawares. For Sister Helen, it was in the form of a simple request. Would you correspond with a convicted murderer on death row? Sure, Sister Helen said, I can write a letter. Like the mustard seed that Jesus spoke about in the gospel, it's the tiniest of seeds. But when it grows up, it becomes a shrub where the birds of the air nest in its branches. The reign of God starts small and then grows. Sister Helen had no idea that the invitation to write a letter was like a seed planted in her that would lead her to spend the rest of her life advocating against the death penalty. "The call unfolds in its own way," she said. "You can't lay out a blueprint and say, here's what's got to happen, and then you see your plan unfold. You've got to let it happen organically." 

Sister Helen was about 42 when she was called. The prophet Isaiah, whom we meet in today's first reading, said, The Lord called me from my mother's womb. But at this stage of his ministry, Isaiah laments that his work does not seem to be bearing fruit. But instead of canceling his call, God widens the horizon. It is too light a thing, God says, to restore only what you can see. Too small to measure purpose by local results. I will give you as a light to the nations. 

We're not asked to generate the light. We're asked to receive it, to tend it, and to let it reach farther than we imagined. Your sense that your efforts were wasted does not mean that they were. What you thought was the whole story may have only been the beginning. And what feels like an ending may be God saying, the light is wider than you imagined. How like our own lives and individual vocations is that image of the mustard seed? We start out in a marriage, in a priesthood, or in a certain career, and while we may think we know where we are headed, we really have no idea what things will look like in the end. 

Paul, too, is planting the seed of Isaiah's mission, bringing the light of the gospel to the Gentiles. The church in Corinth is already struggling. There are divisions, egos, conflicts. A long list of things will need attention later. But Paul does not start there. He begins with identity. "To the Church of God,... to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy." The work of formation will be slow. The growth will be uneven. The conflicts will be real. But the call does not disappear because the people are imperfect. They are already named, already claimed, already held. 

Franciscan Father Richard Rohr says, "Beholding happens when we stop trying to hold and allow ourselves to be held by the other." St. Irenaeus wrote in the second century, "The glory of God is a human being fully alive," and then added, "and to be alive consists in beholding God." 

"Behold, the Lamb of God." John the Baptist is inviting us to look deeper. Something outside of our ordinary experience is happening. He himself did not recognize the Christ, even though that was why he came baptizing with water. 

The same thing happened to the prophet Samuel when he took his horn of oil to the house of Jesse to anoint the king. Jesse lined up all of his sons. They were all very splendid. In Samuel's eyes, each one seemed like the perfect candidate to be king. But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance. The Lord does not see as mortals see. They look on the outward appearance. But the Lord looks on the heart." Samuel asked Jesse, Don't you have any more? Yes, there is one more, but he's off with the sheep. And that was the one. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. 

John the Baptist now sees clearly and testifies, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him." God not only calls us, God empowers us. It begins with beholding, seeing Jesus as he is, and letting ourselves be seen in return. 

Meister Eckhart famously said, "The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”

"Behold, the Lamb of God."