From Seeing to Beholding

Dear Friend,

This Sunday at the 11am Mass we will welcome our brothers and sisters who are preparing for the sacraments of initiation at Easter - Baptism, Confirmation, and First Communion. We celebrate this Rite of Welcome quite appropriately on a weekend when our readings point us not only to the joy of the Lord in our lives, but also, more subtly, to the challenge of looking more deeply into our lives and our behavior. In other words, reorienting the eyes of our heart to the wider lens on life offered by Jesus Christ opens us to beauty, but can be an uncomfortable stretch.

The challenge of seeing deeply and responding more fully is captured in John the Baptist’s words to the religious leaders: “There is one among you,” he tells them, “whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me…” The reading ends right before John sees Jesus coming toward him. He cries out: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world…”, a phrase that a priest like me can smoothly speak at Mass and have difficulty translating into the liturgy of life, as a member of a perfectly imperfect community. 

 “Advent’s adventure is to move from seeing to beholding,” writes theologian Richard Gula (italics mine). With this Sunday’s text, we’re not quite there yet. What is blinding us from seeing the Lamb of God and acting accordingly? Have we “settled in” to the way it’s always been? Like our newcomers each one of us is called into a deeper experience of life and faith as part of a beloved community planted in a world that can be hostile. Each Eucharist is the repeated sacrament of our initiation. Will our newcomers find in us living signs of humility and joy?

Gratefully,

Fr. Dan ofm, Pastor