CYCLE A 2ND ORDINARY 2014 Isaiah 49: 3, 5-6, 1 Cor. 1: 1-3, John 1: 29-34 Tags: Prophets, Messiah, Lambs
1. An important FAITH step for us is to know the DEPTH of who Jesus is. In our Liturgies, Old AND New Testament scripture is read to help us to Identify Jesus. WHO He is and WHAT He came to accomplish. Today our readings want us to see Jesus as the fulfillment of the Law and Prophets. In preparing this homily, the more I got into it, the more my heart burned and lips drooled. To that point, and to bolster your desire to study scripture, I remind you of St. Jerome’s most important quote, “To be ignorant of Scripture is to be ignorant of Christ”.
2. Scripture has over 300 prophetic statements concerning Jesus as the Messiah that cover his Birth, Ministry and Death. Isaiah had 20 major prophecies and in our 1st reading we heard 2 concerning the Messiah. In the 1st, God said: “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be GLORIFIED. And 2nd: “IT IS TOO light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob…; I will give you as a LIGHT to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” These prophecies were remembered and studied for 500 years, by devout Jews, before they were realized. The Gospel Story where they in part show their fulfillment is the Presentation of Jesus in the temple.
Simeon was promised that he would NOT DIE until he SAW the promised one of Israel. As Joseph and Mary came to the temple to PRESENT Jesus to the Lord, Simeon, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, recognized the infant Jesus as that promised Messiah spoken of in our 1st reading. Simeon said, “Now Master, you can dismiss your servant…my eyes have see the salvation you have prepared for all the nations, a LIGHT to enlighten the pagans and the GLORY of your people Israel”. (Lk 2:27-32)
Jesus identified as the MESSIAH at birth, would soon serve God’s plan of salvation, as an adult, in two ways. To the GENTILES Jesus will reveal the way of salvation for all nations, in a way unknown before his coming. To ISREAL, God’s people, Jesus is GLORY. For 500 years Israel had lost the Glory or Presence of God in the Temple when they lost the Arc of the Covenant. Now in His presence in the temple that day, Jesus replaced the Arc and reestablished in Himself the GLORY of God, because He is the Law, Priesthood and Bread of Life. It will be through His life time activities of preaching, healing , dying and rising, that all God’s promises will be full filled and thus shows Israel’s true Glory and special place in God’s Plan of salvation.
3. The reading from Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians was intended to show how Jesus, LIGHT and GLORY, would full fill prophecy through His church. Corinth, an important port-town and a Roman colony, was materially prosperous but morally corrupt. It was in the year 50 A.D., that St. Paul 1st went there to preach the gospel. As a FAVOR from God, Paul made converts among his fellow Jews, and many among the Gentiles. He left for Ephesus in 52 A.D., and from there he wrote this Epistle to the church of Corinth, correcting abuses that had crept in, and adding further insight to the Gospel message. The opening verses we heard, had been chosen, because they show the prophecy, read in the first lesson, as being fulfilled among the pagans and fellow Jews.
4. The Gospel also serves as a scripture source to help us identify Jesus as the fulfillment of Old Testament. John the Baptist, who had been in the desert living as a hermit, and for a reason similar to Simeon, was called by God to acknowledge to the people, the arrival of the promised and long-expected Messiah. This time it was for the beginning of Jesus Ministry. John went to the Jordan riverside, to proclaim the glad tidings and soon Baptize Jesus into His mission.
5. The day after the Baptism of our Lord by John, according our Gospel, the day starts out with people watching Jesus make His way on to the scene. There John tells us, in making a significant connection to the Old Testament, to: “…behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”. That phrase sounds familiar; we hear it at every mass. So too for the Jews, it was a important faith concept. Lambs were a big part of Old Testament Jewish Sacrificial practices. So even in sacrifice, Jesus would need to be the fulfillment of the Old Testament. 1st then, we must see Jesus as the Sacrificed Lamb of the Passover. The Passover was a major event, celebrated yearly in remembrance of God’s deliverance of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt. Jesus, just like that Lamb, had to shed its BLOOD, DIE and then be EATEN in order for the promise to be full filled. There was another important sacrifice involving lambs. It was a TWICE DAILY Liturgical sacrifice (Tamid) at the temple for the sins of the people. Every morning (9 to noon) and evening (noon to 3), a lamb was to be PERPETUALLY sacrificed. In fact the timing of Jesus death on the cross corresponds to that evening Temple ‘Sin Offering’. All LAMB sacrifices, whether done DAILY or YEARLY by law of the Old Testament, simply pointed to the perfect sacrifice of the coming Messiah on the Cross and fulfilled in Jesus .
6. I HOPE in hearing this Homily, your heart began to BURN and your lips to DROOL. I HOPE you realize as you sit here, that just like the Corinthians, the FAVOR they had received (the LIGHT of Christ), you have received. That you too, “…have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be holy”. I HOPE you realize, that we too have benefited from the Sacrificial Act of the Lamb of God ‘who takes away the sins of the world’.
Therefore, to paraphrase Isaiah, ‘IT IS TOO LITTLE for you to keep the Gospel Message of Salvation to yourself.’ We must all be LIGHT to family, neighbors, friends and co workers. For all to see the GLORY of God in His Church.
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