Second Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year A- Lamb Of God Who Takes Away The Sin Of The World. Version 2.

Jesus taking away sin begins with the grace of God which touches a sinner’s heart, and calls one to repentance. This grace cannot be merited; it proceeds solely from the love and mercy of God. We may receive or reject this inspiration of God, he may turn to God or remain in sin.

A researcher named Rose, in 1990, noted that “although obligatory confession to a priest was rejected by the Protestant revolution, the practice of confessional self-inspection” still continued [in various ways] but the big difference was, in contrast to earlier [Catholic] Christian traditions in which confessions were made to a spiritual guide [called a priest] in the Protestant tradition, the individual now served as both sinner and judge of his or her own self” (Rose, 1990). Without digressing into the whole topic of confession, I am very sure that a non-Catholic Christian would be very quick to say that they confess directly to God, and not “a man,” like a priest; nevertheless, I think they run the risk of subjectivism—“was I really sorry? If so, how do I know that God has forgiven my sin because I keep doing it?” For Catholics, mortal sin, especially, is taken away by absolution; otherwise, the meaning of the phrase ‘to take away’ could be something like the moving of an object from one place to another by compartmentalizing in one’s conscience which could result in neurotic guilt in some form for mortal sins. We need to hear the words of absolution.

Source: A cultural and historical perspective on confession, Georges, E. (1995). A cultural and historical perspective on confession. In J. W. Pennebaker (Ed.), Emotion, disclosure, & health (pp. 11–22). American Psychological Association.

In conclusion, something happened on Calvary that bridged the gap between a holy God and unholy humanity. We see Christ in his majesty but also in his mercy. God is victorious in the spilt blood of Jesus. His body, broken in death, lives forever. In Revelation 5:6, in heaven we will see Jesus as the lamb who was slain for us who bears the marks of his death as emblems of his love.

In one of the Chinese languages, the word for “righteousness” is made up of two symbols: the word for “lamb” over the word for “me”- so righteousness in Chinese is “the lamb over me.”

Amen.