Each time we come to Mass, just before Holy Communion, the priest lifts the Host and says, “Behold the Lamb of God; behold Him Who takes away the sins of the world.” These words are so familiar to us, it’s very easy to let them pass over our heads without reflection. But on this Sunday the Church asks us to pause and meditate on their profound meaning.

The phrase comes directly from today’s Gospel (John 1:29-34) when John the Baptist sees JESUS approaching and proclaims, “Behold the Lamb of God.” John recognised Who JESUS was and helped others to see it too.

So why does John call JESUS the Lamb of God? To understand this, we have to return to Old Testament times where lambs were offered daily in the Temple, morning and evening, for the sins of the people. This was central to Israel’s worship. Remember the story of the Passover (Exodus 12), when God commanded an unblemished male lamb be sacrificed, and the doorposts marked with its blood, so that the Angel of Death would ‘pass over’ God’s chosen people and spare their first-born. If there was no lamb’s blood, there was no deliverance, and death was the result. So the lamb’s life was given so that others could live. And yet those Old Testament sacrifices never removed sin, and they had to be repeated over and over again. But they pointed forward to something and Someone far greater.

So when John calls JESUS the Lamb of God, he is saying; This is the One all the others were pointing to – not just another sacrifice, but THE sacrifice. In other words, He is the one Sacrifice that will truly take away sin, once and for all. JESUS freely accepted this mission. His Sacrifice on the Cross was the whole purpose of His coming. The prophet Isaiah said, He is “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter” (53:7). And that Sacrifice although it happened once in history and almost 2,000 years ago, its effects last forever.

This is why Holy Mass is so important. The Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross is not repeated, but is made truly present on the altar under the appearance of bread and wine. And when the priest holds up the Host and says, “Behold the Lamb of God; behold Him Who takes away the sins of the world”, this is the same JESUS pointed out by John and Who offered the supreme Sacrifice of His life on the Cross, and He is present in Person.

In the book of Revelation, the final book of the Bible, St John has a vision of Heaven, where Christ appears as a lamb slain (5:6-14). Though He is now risen and glorified, He still bears the wounds of His sacrifice, not as signs of defeat, but of victory and love. And the angels and saints praise Him because our salvation was won by the Sacrifice of the Cross. This is what the Church calls the “eternal liturgy of Heaven”, and at every Mass, we on earth take part in it (Catechism of the Catholic Church #1326). Holy Mass is our preparation for Heaven. The altar on earth is joined to Heaven, and we pray with the angels and saints before JESUS, the sacrificed Lamb of God. Even though we cannot yet see Him in His glory, He is truly present, and invites us to be part of that worship that one day will last for eternity in Heaven.

Fr Paul Gillham, IC