Second Sunday in ordinary time Johan 1, 35-42

Jesus – ideal, pattern, example

Dear brothers and sisters, when you open a newspaper to read what is new at home and in the world or turn on the television, you will find that the press and the media are full of various terrible and sad news today. These are either various national and fundamentalist hostilities, various air, naval or rail accidents, and various suicides and unexplained actions by some people. When something happens, everyone immediately thinks about why it happened, where the mistake happened, or whether it could have been prevented. Subsequently, various analysts come up with their proposals for the future so that something similar does not happen again and so that similar tragedies are avoided in the future.
But let’s ask ourselves a question. Our security measures enough to save people, nations, the world?

If we asked this question to John the Baptist, he would certainly say no. One of the greatest dangers that must be removed and that must be combated today is the power of sin. We must be unequivocally aware that we are all sinners and prone to sin. Our only salvation from this danger is Jesus, as we have heard in the Gospel today: “Behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sins of the world” (Johan 1:36).

Jesus is given various names during his journey. Once it is the Messiah, other times the Son of God, and in today’s Gospel, we have heard John call him. She calls him the Lamb of God. These words, by which John the Baptist refers to Christ, we could say that they are quite bold, even provocative of the Jews, for whom the word lamb means something significant. It was a lamb whose blood was painted on the doorposts to mark their homes in Egypt, making it a symbol of salvation from misery and death, from slavery and humiliation. The Jews were also strengthened with the flesh of the lamb during the journey to the betrothed land. Then, every year, they commemorated these events at home in their families, killing and eating a one-year-old lamb in memory of their departure from Egypt. They also sacrificed the one-year-old lamb as a thank you when they brought their child to the temple after birth. That is why John took many risks when he named Jesus before the Jews before the Lamb of God.
As we all know, St. John the Baptist is the Lord’s immediate forerunner, who was sent to prepare the way for him. He already greets Christ’s arrival in his mother’s womb when Mary visited her relative Elizabeth. He always goes before Jesus and bears witness to him with his sermon, his baptism of conversion, and finally, his martyrdom. John concludes the cycle of prophets that began with Elijah. But he is more than a prophet. He proclaims that the pacification of Israel is near, as if “the voice of the Comforter.”
Behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sins of the world. Jesus was sent here by the Father to sacrifice for the sins of all people, to free us from slavery, as the Lamb once freed the Jews from Egypt and brought them to the betrothed land. Even with his humiliating death, Christ frees us from the darkness of sin and shows us the way, the way in the right direction to the betrothed land to our Father.

Yes, dear brothers and sisters, Jesus sacrificed for our sins, yours, and our sins. He forgives us. But as we see all around us, whether at work or home, young people again at school, in dormitories, everywhere as if the strength, size, and the number of different perversions were constantly increasing. That is why it is necessary to think about this phenomenon of today’s rather secularized time and start immediately dealing with oneself and one’s attitudes. We must ask ourselves whether our relationship to sin is right. Do we not have a too lax conscience, and thus the inclination to justify quite serious guilt and transgression? Are we no longer absorbed in today’s problems, namely to follow the direction, pace, and tactics of the modern world, which will uncompromisingly confuse and condemn anyone who does not want to adapt to today’s conditions of life?
It is important to realize your life’s style in our families, in your children’s upbringing, in your personal example to everyone around us. Let’s look at and name things by their real name and don’t try to cover things up and talk about them so that it sounds good not only in our ears but also to the surrounding people. After all, when we parents and educators of a new generation, which is to be a blessing not only for us but for the whole country, we will not teach young people right, what is good and what is evil, what I can and what cannot, what is virtuous, even praiseworthy and what it is dismissive if we do not shape their conscience well, so we can be sure that they will have a tough time judging what they can and cannot do.
Even today’s “perfect world” and lifestyle, which is preferred quite arrogantly and cynically, look at the values ​​that may have been recognized for centuries and that our fathers and grandfathers adhered to. They get to society’s margins as something ridiculous, backward, even today, supposedly, archaic, or obsolete, and causing the brake of today’s life.
As we had heard John’s words to Jesus today when he called him the Lamb of God, we Christians must become such sacrificial lambs for our sins as well as for all sinners, and for us to become good warriors of Jesus in the fight against sin. Perhaps this is not so much necessary to adhere to the words of Jesus and, of course, to strengthen everything with fervent prayer and participation in the Eucharist.

Fighting sin today requires strong faith and a determination to sacrifice something in the struggle.

But let’s think about this event, described by a certain priest, Segur, in the book HISTORY.
A father lost his little daughter in a big crowd on a busy city street. He was afraid that the child would perish. How many he walked, how many he looked, everything was in vain. We can imagine this father’s despair at the child’s loss when he imagined what a terrible thing could have happened to him. What happened to the child, where is he or not …
After four years of searching, he happened to go to the wanderers’ dance booth, and there he saw his daughter on stage performing all sorts of acrobatics on a rope. He couldn’t stand it. He jumped over the fence with one leap and, as he ruled most powerfully, exclaimed, “Daughter!” And she looked at him in disbelief. She didn’t know him. When she was lost, she was a small child. They kidnapped her, and now, after a moment’s thought, she replied, “Are you, my father? No, my father is here “- and she pointed to the comedian who had already run-up to her to defend his victim if necessary. Nothing helped; the daughter did not return to her father, did not know him, renounced him.

Oh, how hard it is sometimes to go back to my father! The devil who steals souls from God has thousands of ways to prevent a return to the Father. It attracts with the appearance of bliss, satisfaction; it spreads for the various settlements the temptations it so oppresses. It envelops the soul that there is almost no possibility of breaking free from this tangle. Man triumphs, scribble whole, and fall as if in vain. Good luck that our Father is good and powerful. If you decide to get up, if you take the first step of repentance, the dearest Father will meet, wipe out his arms, forgive, forget.
Dear brothers and sisters, we see that the mercy of the Heavenly Father is infinite. He is patient with us, and, most importantly, he always has open arms to which we can return at any time. But let us be grateful to him and ask him together today: Father, give us enough strength in the fight against sin, let us always know what you will is, what is dear and praiseworthy to you, and try to live accordingly.