Second Sunday of Ordinary Time - January 15, 2017

Homily for Ordinary Time 2

January 15, 2017

Who Is Jesus?

 

            When Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia passed away last year, his son Fr. Paul Scalia (a priest of the Arlington Diocese), gave a wonderful homily, which began with these amazing words:

            “We are gathered here because of one man. A man known personally to many of us, known only by reputation to even more. A man loved by many, scorned by others. A man known for great controversy, and for great compassion. That man, of course, is Jesus of Nazareth.”

            Instead of speaking about his deceased father, he brought up a man who is truly the turning point of history – Jesus Christ. No one in the history of the world has had a greater impact than He.

When faced with Jesus Christ, we are faced with a choice. We either believe in Him and follow Him, or we reject Him. But we cannot remain neutral about Him. Other great religious leaders, such as Confucius or Gandhi, showed us a way to happiness – but Jesus claimed to be THE Way, and the Truth, and the Life. People such as Mohammed or Buddha pointed the way to God – but Jesus claimed to BE God. Jesus made some radical claims – and either He was telling the truth, or He was crazy and a fool. As CS Lewis put it, “Jesus is either Lord, liar or lunatic.” Every human being must recon with the Person of Jesus – if He is truly the Messiah, then we must be His disciples!

Let’s take a look at three of the titles that Jesus is called in today’s Gospel. First, John the Baptist calls Him the “Lamb of God”. This title hearkens back to the Old Testament, where a lamb was sacrificed on Passover. The lamb’s blood was spread upon the doorposts, causing the angel of death to pass over their houses and spare the Israelites. The lamb – a male lamb, without blemish – would, by its death, free the Chosen Ones from death. John is calling out that this Man, Jesus, would be that Lamb – the one whose sacrifice on the Cross would be our new Passover – passing over from the spiritual death of sin to the rich and abundant life of grace. It would be His sacrifice, His blood that does this for us – and thus, Jesus is the Lamb of God.

Secondly, Jesus is referred to as the one “on whom the Spirit rests”. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus’ first public act was to go to the synagogue and open the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He then read this passage: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor.” Jesus’s role, through the Holy Spirit which rests on Him, is to preach the Gospel (a word which means “good news”). But what is the Gospel? Essentially, it is this: God so loved the world that He sent His only Son to die for our salvation, and anyone who believes and follows Him will have eternal life. That’s the Gospel in a nutshell!

Finally, Jesus is called the “Son of God” by John. He is divine – truly God, and truly man. But this has huge implications for us as well – if He is God, and we are His brothers, then all believers become adopted as sons and daughters of God. The Good News is not just that we are sinners covered by grace – Martin Luther used the erroneous example of humanity being like a pile of dung, which God then covered with snow so the dung wasn’t visible any more. But that’s not who we are in Christ – we’re not just dung heaps covered by snow. We are sons and daughters of the Most High God. By our faith in Christ, by His grace in the sacraments, by our daily walk with God, we become truly transformed! I love what Pope St. Leo the Great said – “Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition!” In other words, realize WHO you are – you are sons and daughters of God – and WHOSE you are – you belong to a good and holy Father. This realization should be enough to make us change the way we live!

My friends, it all comes down to Jesus. We have to decide who He is – if we believe that He is the Messiah, then it changes who we are, it changes the point of our life, it changes everything. One thing we cannot do is remain neutral – either we believe in Jesus, or we reject Him, but we must decide. As for me, I am certain that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.