The Lamb of God

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author.

“I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming.” The Gospel shows that people are in great expectation. They’ve been waiting for centuries for the Messiah, and now they’re wondering, as if this John who is preaching is the Messiah. They’ve been waiting for the great King to come who would overthrow their enemies and restore the greatness to the people of Israel. And so suddenly, this John, this wild, ascetic, very severe, appears from the desert and begins preaching. And Maria Valtorta, the mystic Maria Valtorta, gives this description. She says, John is speaking to the crowds, and his sermon is not a sweet one. John the Baptist, deserves the names of Thunderbolt, avalanche, earthquake, so impetuous and severe he is in his speech and gestures. He is announcing the Messiah, but it is a violent and harsh speech. And Luke gives us a little sample of that. He says, John said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him. How’s this for you? All these people coming to be baptized, and here’s what John says, “You brood of vipers.” How’s that for a way to get people on your side, “You brood of vipers? Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come, even now, the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” So this is this very severe preaching of John the Baptist, and people are coming in repentance to be baptized. And then John, John the Baptist sees Jesus for the first time. Even though he was the cousin of Jesus, it seems that this was actually the first time he was seeing Him. He had never, never seen Him before. And there was only one of the evangelist of the four Evangelists, only one was actually there at that moment, and that one is John, John the Evangelist. And so here’s what John says about that moment – John, who was an eyewitness – he says, “John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said,” – so John the Baptist is going to say something very surprising – an expression that I don’t know if it had ever been used before – “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” the Lamb of God? That’s what’s such a shocking expression. And it’s not what the people wanted, and it’s maybe not what we want. You know, to think of the superheroes we have, and you know, the movies and comic books like Superman and Aqua man and Batman and Spider man and Ant Man. But there’s no lamb man. Marvel hasn’t done a movie about lamb man. Maybe his uniform would be kind of all fuzzy and wooly. So there’s no, there’s no lamb man. And so when I was preparing this gospel, I was, I mean, preparing the homily today, I was thinking, well, it’s a baptism of Lord. Maybe I’ll preach about baptism, or maybe about the Holy Spirit. But I felt the Lord was drawing me to this Lamb of God, and I’ve often come to that, but I felt like I was kind of resisting it, but I felt like that’s what the Lord wanted us to look at. So the people of Israel, the Old Testament that they had a lot of experience of sheep and lambs, so they were very realistic about lambs. The Catholic Bible Dictionary says about lambs that they’re very mild mannered and utterly dependent upon man for survival. So that’s not a great situation for an animal, maybe to be utterly dependent on man for survival. Well, I mean, actually that in some ways, there’s benefits to that. But, so the lambs, lambs are one of the main animals that was sacrificed. In fact they were the ones that were sacrificed for the Paschal service. And lambs that the dictionary says they’re entirely docile and they can be led to the slaughter without resistance. So the lambs were used as a sacrificial animal. But the Old Testament didn’t present God as a lamb. It presented Him as a warrior. I don’t think it ever referred to God as a lamb; the animal that was most used was a lion. God was like a lion. And so there’s two great surprises in what John is announcing. One, he’s announcing that God becomes a lamb, not literally a lamb, but becomes what the lamb represents, gentle, innocent, defenseless. So a sheep already has a lot of that, but a lamb even more so. And I said the Old Testament didn’t refer to God as a lamb. But there’s one mysterious passage in Isaiah, where this famous passage, speaking of the suffering servant, in Isaiah 53 and it says, “and we all, we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” So it’s kind of like where he’s comparing us to stupid, stubborn sheep, or each one going their own way. And then it says, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, like a lamb that has led to the slaughter.” He was afflicted. He said he put on him the chastisement for us all. He was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, like a lamb that is led to a slaughter, like a sheep, that before its shearers is silent.” So he opened not his mouth. And this was a prophecy about Jesus, who would not protest, who would go willingly to His sacrifice. And so there’s a paradox of weakness and strength, because what seems like weakness in the interior arena, the arena of spirits, the Battle of spirits. This is an act of extreme strength, the power of a love which sacrifices itself. And so the first surprise is that God becomes a lamb. And the second surprise is that the Lamb is victorious. So you could, you could say it in this two ways. The first surprise is that God becomes a lamb, and the second surprise is that the lamb is God, meaning the lamb is victorious, that the lamb sacrifice on the Cross becomes a victory. And because what, what needed to be done was to take away sin, and no one could do this. And this was the most essential thing, because without taking away this sin, no one could go to heaven. And so this is not an act of weakness, but it’s an act of doing what is most effective to fulfill that most essential need to take away sin, to break the endless cycle that our world has been caught in of sin and violence. And so that’s why the lamb becomes – God becomes the lamb to take away – St John the Baptist says, to take away the sin of the world, the only one who could do that. But then John the Evangelist, who sees this and writes about in his Gospel, then is given this great vision of the book of Revelation, the apocalypse. And there, near the beginning of that, John hears the announcement about the Lion of Judah. But what he sees there in heaven, with all this great court of Heaven present, what he sees up here is a lamb, a lamb that had been slain and yet is now risen victorious. And through this lamb, as in the father and he was on the throne, entrusts the scroll, the scroll which represents all human history, all human history, and the designs of God throughout human history, are entrusted to the lamb. And John sees all those in this great multitude in heaven, all prostrating in adoration in the presence of the Lamb, singing the praise of the Lamb, because the Lamb is victorious. And I’ll just read you two passages which speak of that. There’s one, one in the book of Revelation that it speaks about the 10 kings, these 10 powerful kings who are working with the beast, the satanic beast, and it says they will make war on the land, so that this beast, with his 10 mighty kings making war on the land. So it doesn’t sound like a lamb would have a chance, but it says, “the Lamb will conquer them, for He is Lord of Lord and King of kings, and those with Him are called and chosen and faithful.” And then in chapter six, it speaks, it says this, “The kings of the earth and the great men and the generals and the rich and the strong and everyone, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountain calling to the mountains and the rocks – ‘fall on us and hide us from the face’.” So what could be so terrifying that you would want the rocks of the mountains to fall on you? It says, “fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,” from the wrath of the Lamb, “for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand before it.” So this, as I say, it’s so surprising, so shocking that God becomes the Lamb, and then the Lamb is victorious. And so what does this have to do with us? It helps us to understand our own life and our own life, because the life, our life, is often a life, and especially for some people, a life of a lot of difficulties, and we can be victims of a lot of injustice. And so it has like two lessons for us. The first is to turn to Him for mercy, because this is the Lamb who can take away our sins, who has come to take away our sins. And so the book of Revelation at one point, John says to one of the one of these persons who’s speaking to him, he’s asking him, who are these? And John says, Sir, you know. And this person responds to him. “These are those who have come out of the Great Tribulation,” and maybe we’re living that great tribulation now. “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” So that is what is capable of washing us no matter how grave our sin is, the blood of the Lamb, the blood that is represented in this Divine Mercy image, the blood of the Lamb. And that’s why in the Mass we pray, “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.” And we repeat that and then “grant us peace.” Well, here we’ll chant it in Latin, “Agnus Dei,” Lamb of God, “Agnus Dei,” so the Lamb who takes away our sins. So that’s one way that the Lamb, we come to the Lamb for mercy, recognizing that we’re sinners, but His blood, His sacrifice, washes us of our sins. But then there’s something else that the book of Revelation says, it speaks of those who follow the Lamb. Because John sees this great multitude of victors, and he wonders who they are, and he learns that they are those who have followed the Lamb wherever He goes. And so now we see something different, not just being washed by the lamb to be. Freedom of our sins, but following the Lamb, following the mission, following the mission of the Lamb, accompanying the Lamb and at another point in the book of Revelation John, John hears about those who have conquered satan. How do they conquer satan? By the blood of the Lamb, the same blood, the blood of the Lamb, which can conquer satan? He says, “they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb.” Notice what it says. It says they have conquered him, but by the blood of the Lamb. So they are part those who did this. It’s not just God has conquered him, but it’s also those who are faithful have conquered him. They have a part. We have a part in this victory over the evil one. And that’s what we’re in. We’re called this great reconquest of conquering, reconquering that what the evil one had conquered. So we are called to this. And how do we do it? By the blood of the Lamb, by the blood of by faith in Jesus Christ, receiving the power of His blood to free us from our sin and by His blood, acting sacrificing, by our own sacrifice, united to His sacrifice. So even in a situation where we might feel helpless and overwhelmed, like we’re not strong enough to overcome so much evil, Jesus shows us that we can still be triumphant and effective. So that’s like a secret weapon or a secret strategy, that even those who feel that there’s no way they can overcome such a powerful evil, by uniting themselves to Jesus, to His sacrifice, to His blood, we can overcome. It’s precisely that sacrifice of offering, our sufferings, our struggles, our humiliations, that we can participate in conquering the evil one in this great reconquest, by following the Lamb and offering His blood. And so that shows us the value of so many victims that the mystics speak of, victim souls, so many victims in our world today, united to Jesus by the power of their sacrifice, united to His sacrifice, can overcome. And so that’s what the Mass is about. The Mass is about uniting our sacrifices to the sacrifices of Jesus, which we renew that offering to the Father. You know, there’s only one animal that is mentioned in every Mass, and I hope you can guess which animal that is. Now, it’s kind of funny, right? The only animal mentioned in the Mass, in every Mass. Maybe we like to mention dogs or cats or horses or little birds or stuff like that, but the only animal that’s mentioned is the Lamb. And how many times? Not once, not twice, not three times, not four, five times, five times. Before, right before communion, we hear about the Lamb, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God. And then Blessed are they who are called to the supper, the marriage supper of the Lamb. And so that’s what, that’s why this Mass, and it’s good to be reminded of it. We’re not just here as a routine. We’re here called to this great mission of the reconquest. And how do we, how do we conquer against such a powerful enemy? And what we realize that we also are weak sinners who have given in sometimes to the enemies, and struggle every day. So we come to this Mass to make an act of trust in the mercy which flows through the blood of the Lamb. And then we also realize that we’re not called just to receive His mercy, but we’re called also to follow the Lamb, uniting our sacrifices, our sufferings, to Him for the great salvation of souls, the great reconquest of souls. And so remember every Mass, before every communion, we’re reminded over and over again of the Lamb, the great mystery of the Lamb of God. And we hear those words, the very words at the baptism of our Lord. We hear those words when the blessed sacrament is held up – “Behold the Lamb of God,” the words of John the Baptist, and then we hear the words that John the Evangelist heard at the very end of the book of Revelation, when he heard “Blessed are those who are called to the wedding feast of the Lamb,” because those who are united to the Lamb, to the Lamb, in His struggle, in His cross and His sacrifice, will be united forever with Him in His glory. And so that is our call. That is your call. That is your mission today, as St John heard in the Book of Revelations, to follow the Lamb wherever He goes. He goes to the cross, and then He goes to victory, to glory forever in heaven. So with our Blessed Mother, with St John the Baptist, St John the Evangelist, let us follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Amen.

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Luke 3:15-16
Luke 3:7
Revelations 6:15-17
Revelations 7:14-15
Revelations 17:14