REFLECTIONS TODAY
As Jesus comes to John the Baptist, John points him out as “the Lamb of God,” thereby setting the tone of Jesus’ mission to be like the lamb of the Passover (Ex 12:3), or the sacrificial lamb offered for the expiation of the sins of the people on the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur (Nm 29:7-8). When John sees the Spirit coming on Jesus, he knows that Jesus in turn will “baptize” people, not simply with water but also with the Holy Spirit. In time, Jesus will reveal to the Samaritan woman a spring of water welling up to eternal life when speaking of the Spirit he will give (Jn 4:14). He will “hand over the spirit” on the cross (Jn 19:30) and in the evening of his resurrection, he will breathe on the disciples, empowering them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” (Jn 20:22-23). The sacrifice of Jesus as the Lamb of God is made through the power of the Holy Spirit; it is reenacted upon the altar through the ages by the action of the same Spirit.
FIRST READING • 1 Jn 2:29—3:6
If you consider that God is righteous, you also know that everyone who acts in righteousness is begotten by him.
See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure.
Everyone who commits sin commits lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who remains in him sins; no one who sins has seen him or known him.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM • Ps 98
“All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.”
GOSPEL • Jn 1:29-34
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 the sky 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.”
Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2023,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: [email protected].