Sunday, January 20, 2008

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Homily, January 20, 2008

Today is the carry-over from last Sunday's Baptism Ceremony of Our Lord. Today we have a version of the Jesus' baptism according St. John, the Evangelist. What is unique about him is that he portrays John the Baptist addressing Our Lord as “The Lamb of God”, the title of Christ that has been integrated into the Mass, when we say “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us”; and when the priest lifts up the Body and Blood of Christ and says, “This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, happy are those called to His supper.”      

This title is an allusion to the old story of the Passover Lamb which protected the houses of the Israelites on the night when they left Egypt (Ex. 12: 11-13). It was the lamb, one-year old and without blemish. On the night when the Angel of Death walked through town, slaying the first-borns of the Egyptians, the Israelites were to smear their door-posts with the blood of that slain lamb. The Angel seeing the blood of the slain lamb would 'passover' the houses with red blood on their door-posts, sparing them.

What he was saying therefore was that “Israelites, as you were saved from Egypt of slavery by the sacrifice of the lamb, here is the one true sacrifice who can deliver you from the slavery of eternal death.”

“As you daily offer/sacrifice a lamb for your sins, here is the true lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

THE EUCHARIST:
The Holy Eucharist we are about today is that primordial sacrifice of the Lamb of God slain for the deliverance of the Houses of Israel from bondage. He is the Lamb without blemish. He did not have Original Sin.

When we say, “When we eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim your death, Lord Jesus, until you come again,” we re-enact that saving death experience.

When Our Lord, himself, says, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will live forever.” “Has life in him/her.” “Even if s/he dies, s/he will live.” It's precisely because he is that “Slain Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”, that John the Baptist speaks of. When the Angel of Death shall come through our households and find the door-posts of our lips red with the blood of this Christ the Lamb of God slain for us on the Passover Day, the Angel of Death will Pass-Us-Over, and we will live forever. We will not die.

The Viaticum:
That is why this is imperative for those of us who are about to leave this world of bondage and pain that we partake in the Lord's Supper, the meal of the Lamb of God that was slain for our deliverance on the Passover Day.

Daily Mass:
As a son of a priest, Zachariah, John the Baptist knew well what he meant by paying tribute to Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” When the Temple was finished, a lamb was offered daily, one every night, another every morning for the deliverance of the people of Israel from their sin. That is why we have to offer holy sacrifice of the mass is daily for the sins of the world, so that the world may be “passed-over”, spared and not perish.

BAPTISM:
John the Baptist says, “He is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.”  When we are baptized, we are marked or smeared with the Blood of the Lamb of God. To baptize in Greek means to bathe in, to soak, or to dip as it were fabric into a dye. When Greeks spoke of the dying the fabric into a dye, the word they used was baptism. So, when we are baptized, we are in actual fact being “bathed”, “soaked”,  “dipped” in the Blood of the Lamb of God so that we will be “passed-over” by the Angel of Death. In Baptism we are “dyed” in the Blood of the Lamb of God so that we will not “die”.

In the Book of Revelation, John the Apostle has a vision of multitudes of people from all nations. These multitudes are marked with the Seal of the Lamb on their foreheads, and their garments are dazzling white. The Angel asks him, “Son of Man, who are these people.” John says, “How can I know unless someone teaches me.” The angel said, “These are men and women of every generation, from every nation across the whole world who have 'washed' their clothes in the blood of the Lamb.” As St. Paul says in the 2nd reading, by our baptism, we have been called to holiness, to call upon the name of Christ. We have been sanctified by virtue of bathing in the blood (that is, death) of Jesus Christ the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

“We have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy, with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

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