HOMILY FOR THE MEMORIAL OF THE MOST HOLY NAME OF JESUS, YEAR B

HOMILY FOR THE MEMORIAL OF THE MOST HOLY NAME OF JESUS, YEAR B

THEME: Look, there is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

BY: Fr Deotacious Chikontwe SMA

READINGS OF THE DAY
1 John 2:29-3:6
Psalm 97:1,3-6
John 1:29-34

LITURGICAL COLOUR
WHITE

INTRODUCTION
Good morning my dear brothers and sisters in Christ.Today we celebrate the 3rd day of the Year 2024. And on this special day, we mark the memorial of the Most Holy Name of Jesus.

FROM OUR FIRST READING
A section of today’s first reading is often read at a funeral Mass. It contains one of the many different ways that the New Testament speaks about eternal life, ‘we shall be like him (God) because we shall see him as he really is’. This verse speaks of a vision of God which is truly transformative, changing us more fully into the image of God, ‘we shall be like him’. Elsewhere in this letter, the author says ‘God is love’. The letter as a whole suggests that to see God as he really is amounts to seeing God as Love, and this seeing, this experience of God as Love, makes us more like God, more loving. Our ultimate destiny is to become the image of God who is Love. We cannot see God as he really is in this earthly life. Yet, God has sent us his Son as the fullest expression of his love in human form.

FROM OUR GOSPEL READING
Some of the words of Scripture have become a fixed part of the language of the church’s liturgy. The opening words of today’s gospel reading are a good example of that. The words of John the Baptist, ‘Look, there is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world’ are more or less the words the celebrant speaks at Mass just before communion, when he holds up the host. Our response to those words at Mass, ‘Lord I am not worthy…’ is a version of the words spoken by the centurion to Jesus when Jesus offered to go to his house to heal his servant. That story is found not in John’s gospel but in the gospels of Matthew and Luke.

CONCLUSION
The liturgy has brought together two sets of words from the gospels that, originally, had no connection with each other. Those two sets of words are, in a way, quite contrasting. John the Baptist is pointing out Jesus to his own disciples and saying to them, ‘Look, there is the Lamb of God, go to him’. The centurion is saying to Jesus ‘Don’t come to me, because I am unworthy’. Both sets of words express a truth. We are all unworthy of the Lord’s coming to us, and yet we are invited not only to receive the Lord when he comes, but to take the initiative to go to him. Our unworthiness is not an obstacle to the Lord’s relating to us or to our relating to him. The Lord does not ask us to be worthy; he asks us to be open to him, and to keep seeking him out, like the followers of John the Baptist.
May God bless us always and may He empower us all, to live in His Presence, entrusting ourselves to His Most Holy Name, now and forevermore. Amen.

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