The readings on this 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time invite us to reflect on who Jesus is and, inseparably, who we are called to become in him.
In the First Reading from Isaiah, we hear one of the great “Servant Songs” in which Isaiah prophecies that God will raise up a servant, who from the womb will be a light to the nations that God’s salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”
Christians have always recognized that this passage finds its definitive fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Recall that Gospel story of the angel appearing to Joseph—while still in the Virgin’s womb it is revealed that the child was to be named Jesus—which means God saves. Jesus’ very identity is God who saves. He has come to gather what is scattered, to bring salvation to the whole world.
Jesus’ identity as Savior is made unmistakably clear in today’s Gospel. John the Baptist sees Jesus approaching and declares, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” “Lamb of God” is not simply a poetic title. In Jewish worship, the sacrificial Lamb was offered as a way of pleading to God for the forgiveness of sins.
But John doesn’t just call Jesus a sacrificial lamb, but the Lamb of God. The sacrificial Lamb that God makes of Himself for the forgiveness of the sins of all people.
I saw an internet video this last week where a Muslim man was arguing with a Christian, claiming that the most high God would never take on something as lowly and corrupt as human flesh and die such an ignoble death as crucifixion. “Why, why would the Most High God do such a thing” the Muslim argued. To which the Christian responded, “because God loves us, and wished to save us from our sins.”
As Lamb of God, Jesus reveals the glory of God’s love for us. He willingly embraces suffering and death out of love. So our readings, reveal that Jesus is Servant, He is Savior, He is the Lamb, He is Love incarnate. But our readings don’t just reveal who Jesus is. They also teach us about ourselves, what it means to belong to Him and follow Him.
St. Paul, addressed the Corinthian Christians with a striking description: “you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, [are] called to be holy.”
Paul explains here that Christians who have been sanctified by Christ, reborn in the waters of baptism, washed clean by the blood of the Lamb, are called to be holy. Christians are to be about the business of growing in holiness—of becoming as holy as we possibly can.
Holiness is not an optional spiritual upgrade for a few particularly devout people. It is a universal calling—a calling for every member of the baptized. To follow Jesus means to willingly walk the path of holiness.
Vatican II articulated this universal call to holiness. Prior to Vatican II, there was confusion, at least at the level of common Catholic culture, about whether holiness was even possible for people who did not enter religious life. The common understanding was that if you married and raised a family, you could never reach true sanctity. But Scripture is clear, the testimony of the saints is clear: all those who have been sanctified through baptism are called to be as holy as you possibly can. All are called to strive to become canonizable saints, whether you are married, single, a member of the clergy, or a member of a religious congregation.
And we have seen laity—married and single in this past century canonized. Think of the married parents of St. Therese and Lisieaux—Saints Louis and Zelie Martin, and the recently canonized teenage St. Carlos Acutis. It is not hubris to make canonization our goal: nothing less befits our baptismal calling and Christian identity.
The Psalm today gives us a particular insight into our call to holiness. “Sacrifice or offering you wished not…Holocausts or sin-offerings you sought not”…but “ears open to obedience”.
There was a school of thought in the old Jewish practice that as long as we simply offered the right animal sacrifices, followed all of the ritual purity laws, that’s what was pleasing to God. But the Psalm is clear, that God doesn’t want or need mere external adherence to ritual laws, he wants the trust and hope and surrender and love of our hearts, he wants hearts that delight in obedience out of Love for Him.
In this, Jesus is the model for us. He is the Humble Servant who offers himself to the Father out of burning love. Yes, of course, we are called to be faithful to the formalities of liturgical law and the moral precepts of the Church—whether we like them or not. But God doesn’t just want surface level adherence—he wants hearts open to being transformed from the deepest depths of ourselves—pious hearts which desire what is good because God is good and wish to be completely pleasing—hearts which are conformed to the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord which enthusiastically present themselves to God every day, again in the words of our psalm today “Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.” In your law and in your purposes are my delight.
To seek holiness doesn’t mean that God expects us to be flawless right now. If you are struggling with sin, which is all of us, to be holy is to seek God’s mercy and help in overcoming sin because you wish to have a life that is in union with the Father. If you have been given gifts, holiness means seeking God’s help in putting those gifts into His service, for His purposes, not our own selfish whims. Holiness means doing what we can with the time, talent, and treasure we have been given to serve God with hearts that delight in Him.
Each time we come to the altar, each time we present ourselves to receive Holy Communion, we aren’t just fulfilling our religious obligations—our hearts are truly meant to echo and resound with the words of the Psalm, which Christ made his own: “Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.” May those words be not just a hallow refrain; may they become the pattern of our lives—lives of holiness, obedience, and loving service, united to Christ the Servant, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
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