Homily for 2d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
2d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Jan. 18, 2026
John 1: 29-34
The Fountains, Tuckahoe
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx

“John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world’” (John 1: 29).

Last week we celebrated the feast of the baptism of Jesus, and we heard God the Father’s recognition of Jesus as his beloved Son and witnessed the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus in the form of a dove.

Today John the Baptist testifies that he has witnessed this event.  It seems that John doesn’t immediately recognize who Jesus is; but when he sees the Spirit descend on Jesus, then he knows who he is:  “He’s the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit” (1:32-33).

John’s recognition goes further:  “This is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”  This man Jesus, by giving the Holy Spirit to people, takes away sin—not just sin of some vague sort, but “the sin of the world.”  In another place, St. John tells us “the whole world is under the power of the Evil One” (1 John 5:19).  All the power and glory of the kingdoms of the earth belong to Satan (Luke 4:5-6).  This is that collective which John the Baptist calls “the sin of the world.”

It’s more than that; each of us bears the baggage of sin.  Each of us is weighed down by degrees of pride, greed, lust, anger, and a pile of personal sins.  All of that is encompassed when John announces the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

John the Baptist identifies Jesus as “the Lamb of God.”  He’ll repeat that identification the following day for the benefit of 2 of his disciples (1:35-36), who will proceed to follow and stay with Jesus.  So do we identify Jesus at Holy Communion when we echo John’s acclamation, “Behold, the Lamb of God” and he invites us to come to and stay with him.

What does “Lamb of God” mean?

It evokes the Passover.  The Hebrews in Egypt were spared when the angel of death passed over the land and slew the firstborn sons of all the inhabitants except in those houses where the doorposts had been painted with the blood of the passover lambs.  We are saved—John is crying out prophetically—by Christ’s blood, which marks our souls as belonging to God’s people.  This Lamb’s blood washes away our sins.  John points to Jesus so that we may go to him and claim his protection from the Evil One, so that we may be filled with the Holy Spirit, so that we may be saved.

So we come to Jesus.  We come every Sunday to be cleansed anew in the blood of the Lamb.  We come to the Lamb in the sacrament of Reconciliation, so that he may wash away our sins, all our words and acts against charity, our words against the Lord’s holy name, our unfaithfulness, our impurities, our lies, our impatience, our greediness.  We come to follow the Lamb; he leads us to the Promised Land where he dwells, as God led the Hebrews out of Egypt into the land he’d promised to Abraham.