The light of salvation

Father Ed Vanonry
Homily from the Televised Mass, NewsCenter1
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 15, 2023

Consider this. A little boy and his father take their telescope out one night. As his dad sets up the telescope, he tells his son to look into the eye piece and what the boy sees fills him with wonder. He sees the stars of the rings of Saturn. He sees the red craters of Mars. He sees the stars of the Big Dipper. And so, begins his love for astrology, and he would never see or look at the wonders of outer space in quite the same way again.

Or consider this. A young girl, Julia. She enjoyed listening to the metropolitan opera on her radio or watching their productions on TV. So, for her sixteenth birthday her mother gave her a trip to New York to see the opera in person. With a mixture of excitement and disbelief, she took her seat at the Lincoln Center, and ever since that magical night she has had a phenomenal appreciation for music that she never had before.

Or consider this. Justin. He always loved to draw. And one day, an artist friend happened to see his drawings, and so he offered him suggestions on style and technique. All of which gave Justin a whole network appreciation and understanding of form and color, light and darkness so that he sees everything about the world with very different eyes.

What we just heard in this Gospel of Saint John, it emphasizes this role of John the Baptist as like a bridge between the old and the new testaments. And it his vision of the spirit of God resting upon Jesus, John the Baptist realizes that this truly is the son and the servant of God who has come to make good on God’s promise of a Messiah. He’s the savior, and he would bring forgiveness and peace and reconciliation. And so, John invites us to behold. Behold how the presence of Christ in our lives changes everything.

With what I asked you to consider in those three stories that I told you earlier and with what we heard in this Gospel passage, we need to know that we will most likely never see the world in the same way again after meeting Jesus of the Gospels. Because after meeting Jesus, our Messiah, peace, forgiveness, and justice, it will be possible in ways that we never imagined. And after seeing the world through Jesus eyes our perspectives will be transformed by his light forever.

Throughout this new year, the Gospel writers, they will be inviting us to behold this lamb of God. Transforming our vision. Transforming our expectations for this life and the life to come. And it is by our baptisms that each one of us, we are called to be a witness, to be a prophet. To be a witness of this lamb of God along the Jordan rivers of our lives.