2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time     January 19/20

A

What a difference a week makes.

Last week we heard God the Father say: “This is my beloved Son.  Listen to Him”

Today we have Jesus more defined as John makes the proclamation:

“Behold the Lamb of God, Who

takes away the sin of the world.”

Imagine the crowd’s reaction. They knew what a lamb was for: sacrifice.

The beloved Son will be a God’s sacrificial offering.

B

I have heard many people say,

and my own experience gives me some insight into the reality,

that there is no greater pain that losing a child

it doesn’t even to have to be the ultimate loss,

but such pain can happen when a child cuts themselves off

or when a parent has to exercise tough love and distance themselves so an adult

child takes some responsibility, or your son or daughter moves away for a job

or they join the military to serve our country.

Any of these experiences of parenting gives us a glimpse of what God,

the Father,

was willing to do.

Give his son to us,

certainly aware of the consequences.

My favorite part of the Passion movie was the dramatic effect of a tear drop

falling from the sky and hitting the cross as Jesus gave himself over to death.

God cried.

C

Did you ever wonder….

If God is God, and can do all things, and made us as we are,

then why are you so complicated?

Why do we have to experience pain?

Why did God have to send His Son to die to save us?

There is an easy answer:

with God, we are invited into a relationship of love.

And you know how that works…

the closer we get the harder we fall,

the more we care the more fragile our hearts become

the more we love, the more the other becomes part of who we are.

Not only does God want to be there in the joy that attracts us,

–

but also in the pain that reminds us how much we love.

We know how fearfully wonderfully made we are by God when we cry out in pain:

“Why do I love them so much?” “Why does love hurt sometimes?”

and God responds: “I know what you mean – I know exactly what you mean.”

D

Isaiah reminds us in the first reading that like Israel

– we too must be servants of God.

Not dim – but bright lights to the nations.

And to be servants of God’s will, we must be willing to embrace it.

What is the will of God?

That all might know the love He offers to all,

which will gather us together in His kingdom.

In this ordinary time, we contemplate the ordinary

– the every day.

which is rather extraordinary –

What does God ask of me?

Only the best you can do.

They are the words of a loving Father

who sent us the example of His Son

so that we might, through baptism into His Spirit,

find the grace and strength we need to love.