My Dear People, 

When John saw Jesus coming toward him to be baptized, he announced:  “Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” Without hesitating, John immediately mentions to the people around him that Jesus’ mission was to take away the sins of the world. 

Lambs were sacrificed in the temple to atone for sins. Every Passover celebration recalls the lambs which the forefathers of the Jewish people sacrificed. They marked the door posts with the blood of the lambs, and, afterwards, they roasted and ate the lambs. 

Lambs offered in the temple to atone for sins were very familiar to the Jewish people. Jesus came to be the lamb, sacrificing Himself to take away our sins. From that time on, lambs no longer needed to be sacrificed in the temple. Jesus died, once, for all.  Every time we celebrate Mass, we are united with the event at Calvary where Jesus became the lamb by sacrificing Himself and dying on the cross for our sins. 

Jesus came to “take away the sin of the world,” not just to take away the punishment for the sin of the world.  Jesus came to give us the power not to sin (1 John 3:5-6). Sin itself is hell. Sin is turning away from God, and separation from God is hell.  To be saved from hell but to keep on sinning is an oxymoron. One can’t be in God’s presence (Heaven) while continually not choosing God (Hell). Thus, we can’t survive with sinful habits. We have to let the Spirit in us drive sin out. We also must seek the help of the sacraments often. 

“I saw the spirit come down. . . and remained upon him.” This calls to mind the anointing of David in 1 Samuel 16, to whom the Spirit came mightily “from that day forward” (v. 13); in other words, it remained on him. The Spirit coming down and remaining on Jesus is the sign that Jesus is David’s heir. John the Baptist, the prophet, assumes the role as Samuel, who anointed the first David—he baptizes Christ.

This Gospel announces Jesus as the fulfillment of Isaiah’s vision of the Davidic royal servant, the one who is “Israel.”  Just as Israel, symbolically, (was) washed in the waters of the Jordan when they crossed into the Promised Land under the first Joshua, (Jesus), so, this second Joshua, (Jesus) comes to enter the Jordan once more and lead us to the promised land of heaven. This is done primarily through Baptism, in which we, Christians, are given the gift of the Holy Spirit, which gives us power to become children of God and to live lives of holiness, not lives of continual defeat.  

Of course, concupiscence in us (sometimes called “the flesh” in the New Testament) often resists the workings of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we have to struggle to put down that resistance. The means to do this has remained the same through the centuries: prayer, self-denial (mortification), the sacraments (especially Confession), and the support of the Christian community (fellow Christians, spiritual counselors). This means God provides for us in His goodness in order that we may learn docility to the Spirit and the holiness and happiness of a life led by Him. 

(Portions of this article were taken from the Word of the Lord for year A by Dr. John Bergsma)

Yours in Christ,     

Fr. Vincent Clemente