This Sunday, we hear John pointing to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and thus leads those who follow him to God; - the holiness and abode/dwelling of all holiness. We recognize a certain kind of holiness in the life of John. Even before he points a finger, or even when he begins speaking about Jesus to be the Lamb of God, his way of life is already itself a testimony of what he is talking about. Already many had been drawn to him in the desert to listen to him, and many had been drawn to conversion and were being baptized. His life of holiness was the first testimony.
The second reading from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians points it out clearly how those who are called in Christ Jesus are called to be holy.
The first reading provides the practical part of today’s liturgy of the word. Isaiah proudly exclaims the call of God to Israel through him: “You are my servant, Israel, through whom I show my glory”. By the faithful service of Israel, Jacob would be brought back to God and Israel gathered close to God. What it would take to achieve this would have to weigh less on Israel’s side, for God himself would provide the strength. And yet by that little faithful service God would make Israel a light to the nations and his salvation would reach out to the ends of the earth.
By the virtue of Christian vocation we have found a privilege to be called God’s servants. This servitude Jesus testifies to Peter that those who have chosen to follow him are no longer called slaves like in the ordinary understanding of a servant, but instead they are friends. We are friends with God. God has invited us and continues to invite us to a relationship. God invites daily to this relationship of holiness like him: That our lives may emit God’s holiness: That those we encounter daily may be able to see in us what they would see in Godself.
Oftentimes our lives as Christians have been seen to be a total contradiction of what we daily profess. Time and again because we live in this kind of duality we have failed to point a finger to the one from whom we have taken our name as Christians. We forget that the world needs more witnesses than teachers as Pope Paul VI remarks in Evangelli Nuntiandi.
It is important to understand that Holiness does not mean we are sinless. But it is a constant rise whenever we find ourselves wanting in grace. It is constantly looking at God like in a mirror so that we can truly deserve the name we have taken up on ourselves – Christians. In this way, we can say that we are on our journey to holiness, which holiness is God Himself.
May God bless us as we continue to draw people to Him! May our holy actions be a finger that point to the one whom we claim as Christians to be the Lamb of God!
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