2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

January 15, 2023

First Reading:  Isaiah 49:3, 5-6

Psalm # 40 R: Here I am, Lord, I come to do Your will

Second Reading:  1 Corinthians 1:1-3

Gospel Acclamation Verse: The Word became flesh and lived among us. To all who received Him, He
gave the power to become children of God. (John 1:14, 12)

Gospel:  John 1:29-34

Theme:  Come and see, go and tell

Commentary by Jane Prini

This past Monday, the church celebrated the Baptism of the Lord, by John the Baptist in the River Jordan. The gospel today is St. John’s telling of Jesus’ baptism, giving us insight into what happened after it.  The baptism begins the mission, the reason Jesus was born. St. John is the gospel writer, he is not the one who baptized Jesus. He is the apostle known as the ‘one who Jesus loved’.  St. John had a lot of confidence that he was indeed loved by God.

This short gospel tells us two important parts of what it means to be a follower of Jesus: come and see and then go and tell. First we come to know, we experience what it means to be friends with Jesus Christ, then we share that experience with others that they too may experience it for themselves.

Did you notice that last verse of the gospel? John the Baptist says that this is the Lamb of God, the one that God’s people for centuries has been waiting for, that he has seen him, that he believes him to be the Christ, the saviour, and that he is testifying, in other words, telling others, that this is true. 

Have you ever wandered how it is that we, some 2020 years later, still follow Jesus? Would you have known about Jesus had your parent’s and grandparent’s not taught you about him? We have learned who Jesus is, how he became one of us, what he taught during his ministry about God’s way of living, how he died and that he lives again. We have learned all this because each generation taught the next generation about Jesus. 

We have formed our faith in Jesus through others sharing their stories of their friendship with God the Father, with Jesus and with the Holy Spirit. They have shared how their belief and love of God has grown because of the friendship they have with Jesus, the Lamb of God, the King of kings, the Light of the world. We give Jesus many titles as we learn to worship him and to put all he has taught his disciples in practice, who passed those lessons onto their people, and they in turn to their people up to us, today.

By our baptism, each one of us are given a mission to share with others what we know to be true about Jesus. When we feel the love of Jesus in our prayers and in the ways he still guides us, we can tell others and in doing that we pass along the faith just like John the Baptist did. 

God made us to be His. We belong to Him. He loves each one of us so much. We know that Jesus saved us from the first sin of our ancestors when he died and rose again. Everyday we are invited to say ‘yes’ to living our lives as Jesus taught us in the scriptures. And we are encouraged to say to others, “Come and see, let me tell you what Jesus has done for me”. We tell our stories of faith to others, so they can have that same relationship with Jesus and can pass it on to those they know. This is what it means to be a ‘missionary disciple’, where we live, right here.

Prayer for Families:  Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us people who have taught us about you and your love for us. Guide us as we tell others to come and meet you too. We ask this through our Lord, Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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