Word of the Week

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lamb of God: Ajmnov (Gk.): meaning “Lamb of God”

Jesus' public ministry for the atonement of sins begins with his arrival at the river Jordan , where John declares: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (Jn.1:29) (CCC 536). The Lord, as Lamb of God, so loved the Church that he gave his life for her. Thus, she is the “spotless bride of the spotless lamb” (CCC 757, 796) (cf. Rev.22.17; Eph.1:4, 5:27). The sacrificial offering of the Lamb of God is the Eucharist “par excellance”. The Eucharist is called the Lord's Supper, because the manner it anticipates the “marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rev.19:7) in the heavenly Jerusalem (CCC 1329). This Eucharistic marriage is the nuptial moment between God and man that was prefigured in the Old Testament between Israel and YHWH (CCC 1612). Furthermore, the ‘marriage supper' of the universal church gives direction to the domestic church in its call to offer sacrifice in covenant marriage (CCC 1602).

The phrase ‘ Lamb of God' can be found only 2 times in all of Sacred Scripture, both in the opening chapter of John (Jn.1:29, 36). The term “lamb” can be found on 212 occasions in the Bible. Reading the bible as one single drama of salvation history is imperative when considering the meaning of lamb, and more specifically the Lamb of God. An old covenant cultic (word meaning worship and praise) theology is necessary to understand Christ as the new covenant Lamb of God. It follows, that each use of lamb in the Old Testament in some form prefigures what Christ fulfills and accomplishes in his sacrificial dimension of the New Covenant Church . More precisely, the use of lamb resonates with the Exodus event and Passover meal (celebrated annually to memorialize the deliverance from bondage to Egypt ) (Ex.12). The synoptics record Christ and his need to eat the Passover meal with his disciples (Mt.26:17; Mk.14:12; Lk.22:7), but it is John who establishes Christ as the Passover sacrificial Lamb of God (Jn.19) to be slain for the sins of the world (Is.53:7). In fact, John mentions Passover three times to reinforce his paschal mission and to indicate that he went to Jerusalem in each year of his public ministry (Jn.2:13, 6:4, 13:1).

St. John the Evangelist writes with a strong liturgical sense in both his gospel and the book of Revelation. He places an emphasis on our need to seek out and understand Christ and his relationship to the Passover lamb t hat was to be slain for the atonement of the ‘sins of the world' . Consider the book of Revelation when he has a vision of Christ as a “lamb being slain” (Rev.5:6), and how later this lamb would be the center of the ‘marriage supper' (Rev.19:7). The Church's bridal feast is where the “ spirit and the bride say come” (Rev.22:17). Our Lord seeks a bridal union with our souls and this nuptiality is the work of Christ, who is the Lamb of God.

As members of the Body of Christ, we ought to be offering our daily actions as a holocaust to the heavenly father, a spiritual sacrifice setting us apart for the building up of the Kingdom of God here on earth (Rom.12:1-3; 1 Cor.3:9). In this way, we fulfill the cultic sense that is carried within us as children of God (1 Jn.3:1).

“The lamb, in the Bible, as in other cultures, is the symbol of being innocent; it cannot do evil to anyone but only suffer it.” 

--Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa

Primary Texts Consulted

• Catholic Bible. Suggested trans. Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2 nd Edition, 1997.

 

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