Homily

In this second Sunday of ordinary time, the Gospel again brings us to the banks of the Jordan where John the Baptist baptizes Jesus. Unlike the other synoptic Gospels, the fourth evangelist does not describe the event directly. Rather, he alludes to it by directing the reader's attention to Jesus through the testimony of John the Baptist. Apart from the prologue, this passage in the Gospel of John is where the reader is introduced to Jesus. The preacher in the desert who needed to prepare the way of the Lord sees the one that the peoples have been waiting for coming towards him. John himself has constantly been preaching about and searching for him. Indeed John the Baptist had spent his life preparing the way for Jesus. All of John's words were aimed to open people's hearts to Jesus. All of John's testimony was meant to fill the abyss of their hearts so that the Lord could enter into them. The baptism of repentance that John performed in the Jordan was the sign of the purification of all impurities in order to welcome the Messiah.
John himself had hoped to meet Jesus; he had prayed intensely and deeply that such a meeting might occur. The moment finally arrived. When he saw the face of the young prophet from Nazareth among the crowd, he felt that his hope of meeting the Saviour was not in vain, as we read in Psalm 40: "I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. ... Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord." Although this meeting between Jesus and John was a special and unrepeatable event, it laid the foundation for many other meetings. We could say that this meeting between Jesus and John illustrates the fundamental aspects of Jesus meetings with his disciples and thus it becomes paradigmatic. Many other encounters follow this first one: Jesus met Andrew and the other disciple on the same banks of the Jordan; then Simon Peter, then Philip, then Nathaniel . . . and he also meets those in every generation who listen to the preaching of the Gospel and follow it with their hearts, ourselves included.
The evangelist, with his densely symbolic narrative style, writes that John sees Jesus coming towards him. It is Jesus that comes towards John, not vice versa. Similarly, it is not we who go to meet Jesus; it is Jesus who comes to meet us. We celebrated this mystery at Christmas, when Jesus came to live amongst us. We, by contrast, are so little used to going to meet the Lord that when the Son of God comes on earth we do not even welcome him: "He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him" (Jn 1:11). On his part, the apostle Paul describes with great clarity who takes the initiative in our meeting Jesus. About the incarnation he writes: "Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness" (Phil 2:6-7). The Lord Jesus came down to us to live in our midst, to be our brother, friend, and saviour. But how do we notice that the Lord is coming towards us? How do we avoid closing the door at the moment the Lord is passing by? John the Baptist says that when he saw Jesus, he did not know him. This does not seem realistic - the two are relatives of the same age (there was only six months age difference between the two). In reality, John did not know the "true" face of Jesus. John had known Jesus' physical features and even his goodness, but John still needed to know Jesus more profoundly. He needed to meet him at a more intimate spiritual level in order to comprehend Jesus' mystery.
We, too, need to meet Jesus on a deeper spiritual level in order to truly comprehend his mystery. Perhaps many of us presume that we already know the Lord and already sufficiently know the Gospel; therefore we feel that this frees us from having to know Jesus and the Gospel more profoundly. But if we think about it even briefly, we will realize that we are just at the beginning of our knowledge and practice of the Gospel. If John, who was so spiritually great, could say: "I did not know him," how much more must we say the same? Right before saying this, John says to the crowd that "among you stands one whom you do not know" (Jn 1:26). I think we must make ourselves students of John in order to be able to see that Jesus is coming near to us. How can we put ourselves in John’s school? It is sufficient to listen to the Gospel with all our hearts. Let us try and we will see the Lord coming towards us. We will see him as a lamb who "takes away the sins of the world;" we will see him taking upon himself our fatigue, our worries, our crosses, our doubts, our uncertainties, and our sins. This is the beginning of a true discipleship of the Lord. This is what happened in that little corner of Palestine. Amid strong feelings, yearnings, and conflicts, the long path of the Word of the Lord begins to extend throughout the world. In the man standing before him, John contemplates the one who will save many, who will take on his shoulders (this is what "takes away" means) the sin of the world, who will destroy the violent links that even today render people's lives bitter. This "lamb" (we are not, I remind you, speaking of a wolf) has come to liberate us from the logic of sin, of violence, and of injustice. John's words, "behold the lamb" are clarified when Pilate, presenting a Jesus who had been spat on and crowned with thorns, will tell the crowd: "Behold the man!" This saviour is a lamb; he is poor, weak, and defenceless; he does not live for himself. He lived his entire life for others, even to the point of his death.