Second Sunday
in Ordinary Time
It-Tieni Ħadd
matul is-Sena A
Dan hu l-Ħaruf ta'
Alla
Messalin A pp 256
Reading
ISaiah
49:3, 5-6
The LORD said to me: You are my
servant, Israel Israel Israel
L-Ewwel
Lezzjoni
Qari mill-Ktieb tal-Profeta Isaija.49, 3,5-6
Il-Mulej qalli: "Iżrael, inti l-qaddej tiegħi, bik jiena nkun imfaħħar." Issa tkellem il-Mulej, li minn ġuf ommi għamilni qaddej tiegħu, biex għandu nraġġa' lura lil Ġakobb, u biex Iżrael jinġabar miegħu mill-ġdid - għax jien kont imfaħħar f'għajnejn il-Mulej, u Alla tiegħi kien il-qawwa tiegħi –u Hu qalli: "Tkun ħaġa żgħira wisq għalik, li inti tkun il-qaddej tiegħi,biex tqajjem
it-tribu' ta' Ġakobb, u traġġa lura l-fdal ta' Iżrael. Jien nagħmel minnek dawl għall-ġnus, biex is-salvazzjoni tiegħi sa truf l-art tinfirex." Il-Kelma
tal-Mulej
Responsorial Psalm
PSALM 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10
I have waited, waited for the
LORD,
and he stooped toward me and heard my cry.
And he put a new song into my mouth,
a hymn to our God. R/
R/ Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
and he stooped toward me and heard my cry.
And he put a new song into my mouth,
a hymn to our God. R/
R/ Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
Sacrifice or offering you wished
not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Holocausts or sin-offerings you sought not;
then said I, “Behold I come.” R/
R/ Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Holocausts or sin-offerings you sought not;
then said I, “Behold I come.” R/
R/ Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
“In the written scroll it is
prescribed for me,
to do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!” R/
R/ Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
to do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!” R/
R/ Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
I announced your justice in the
vast assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know. R/
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know. R/
R/ Here am I, Lord; I come to do
your will.
Salm Responsorjali
(Salm
39(40)
Ittamajt b'tama qawwija fil-Mulej;
hu niżel ħdejja u sama' l-għajta tiegħi.
Qegħedli fuq
fommi għanja ġdida,
għanja ta'
tifħir lil
Alla tagħna.
R/ Hawn jien, Mulej, ġej nagħmel ir-rieda
tiegħek
Int ma titgħaxxaqx b'sagrifiċċji u b'offerti;
imma widnejja int ftaħtli,
ma tlabtnix vittmi tal-ħruq u tat-tpattija.
Imbagħad jien
għedt: "Hawn jien, ġej."
R/ Hawn jien, Mulej, ġej nagħmel ir-rieda
tiegħek
Fil-bidu tal-ktieb hemm miktub fuqi
li nagħmel
ir-rieda tiegħek.
Alla tiegħi, dan jogħġobni:
il-liġi tiegħek ġewwa qalbi.
R/ Hawn jien, Mulej, ġej nagħmel ir-rieda
tiegħek
Xandart il-ġustizzja f'ġemgħa kbira;
xufftejja ma żammejthomx magħluqa.
Mulej, dan inti tafu.
R/ Hawn jien, Mulej, ġej nagħmel ir-rieda
tiegħek
Reading
1
CORinthians 1:1-3
Paul, called to be an apostle of
Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, to the church of God
that is in Corinth
It-Tieni
Lezzjoni
Bidu ta' l-Ewwel Ittra lill-Korintin 1,
1-3
Pawlu, li Alla
ried isejjaħlu biex ikun appostlu ta'
Kristu Ġesu', u Sosteni ħuna, lill-Knisja ta' Alla li qiegħda f'Korintu; lil dawk li tqaddsu fi
Kristu Ġesu',
imsejħa biex
ikunu qaddisin flimkien ma' dawk kollha li f'kull pajjiż isejħu l-isem
ta' Ġesu'
Kristu, is-Sid tagħhom u tagħna, grazzja u sliem mingħand Alla
missierna u l-Mulej Ġesu' Kristu. Il-Kelma tal-Mulej
John the Baptist saw Jesus
coming toward him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of
the world. He is the one of whom I said, ‘A man is coming after me who ranks
ahead of me because he existed before me.’ I did not know him, but the reason
why I came baptizing with water was that he might be made known to Israel
L-Evanġelju
Qari mill-Evanġelju skond San Ġwann 1, 29-34
F'dak iż-żmien, Ġwanni, ra lil Ġesu' riesaq lejħ u qal: "Araw il-Ħaruf ta'
Alla, li jneħħi d-dnub
tad-dinja. Dan hu li għalih għedtilkom: "Warajja ġej bniedem li hu aqwa minni, għax kien qabli." Anqas jien
stess ma kont nafu, imma jien għalhekk ġejt ngħammed bl-ilma, biex
hu jkun mgħarraf lil Iżrael." U Ġwanni xehed għalih u
qal: "Jiena rajt l-Ispirtu nieżel mis-sema
bħal ħammiema u joqgħod fuqu. Tabilħaqq, anqas jien ma kont nafu; imma dak li bagħatni ngħammed bl-ilma, hu stess qalli: "Fuq min tara l-Ispirtu jinżel u joqgħod, dak hu li jgħammed
bl-Ispirtu s-Santu." "Dan rajtu
b'għajnejja,
u għalhekk
xhedt, dan hu l-Iben ta' Alla." Il-Kelma
tal-Mulej
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Commentary:
Recognizing Agnus
Dei and other Martyrs --
A Biblical Reflection
by Fr.
Thomas Rosica, CSB
In next Sunday's
Gospel passage (John 1:29-34), the figure of John the Baptist appears once
again almost as if to send us back to Advent...to look carefully at the
evidence of the Baptizer and of Jesus, and to make some decisions about our own
lives. The evangelist John’s account of the Baptism of Jesus is very
different from the other three evangelists, and the historical situation
explains why. John’s gospel text shows no knowledge of the tradition
(Luke 1) about the kinship of Jesus and John the Baptist. In the Fourth Gospel,
John's baptism is not connected with forgiveness of sins; its purpose is
revelatory, that Jesus may be made known to Israel
The evangelist John is very intent
on counteracting a movement that regarded John the Baptist as superior to
Jesus. He does not narrate the baptism event; instead, he puts the
meaning of the baptism into John the Baptist's testimony. He has the
Baptizer publicly profess his raison
d’être: "The reason why I came...was that he [Jesus] might be made
known."
Recognizing Jesus
How did
John the Baptist finally come to recognize Jesus? He combined the
stirrings of the one who sent him to baptize with his knowledge of what the
prophets had said and his encounters with penitents and sceptics. John
realized that when he met someone whose speech and action showed that a special
Spirit was at work, that's the one he should recognize as the one who would
baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Even for the Baptist, it took
time and several sightings before he would recognize that the one the Spirit
was resting on was Jesus of Nazareth. His recognition did not come
spontaneously, nor was it self-evident. It came gradually because it was
imbedded in such familiar surroundings.
Having
established the true Christian view of the relationship between Jesus and the
Baptizer, the writer of the Fourth Gospel concentrates on demonstrating that
Jesus is, indeed, the Servant of God as foretold in Isaiah's Servant
Songs. Sunday's first reading [Isaiah 49:3, 5-6] is the second of
Isaiah's four "Suffering Servant Songs."
The voice
from heaven instructs the Baptizer that the one on whom the Spirit descends is
the Chosen One; he is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. The last
sentence of Sunday's Gospel expresses the very conviction that we should all
experience after hearing John the Baptist's "evidence." Each of
us should be inspired to say, "I have seen for myself...' This is God's
chosen One!' (v 34)" It is that conviction, rooted quietly yet
firmly in our hearts, that will enable us to be ‘lumen gentium:’ a light to the nations.
The Lamb of God
In v 29
of this Sunday’s Gospel we read that when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming
toward him, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the
world.” The expression “lamb of God” is loaded with meaning and it is
good to be aware of the full implications of that word that we pray each time
we celebrate mass. The background for the title ‘lamb of God” may be the
victorious apocalyptic lamb who would destroy evil in the world (Rev 5-7;
17:14); the paschal lamb, whose blood saved Israel (Exodus 12); and/or the
suffering servant led like a lamb to the slaughter as a sin-offering (Isaiah
53:7, 10).
Sheep and
lambs are symbolic in the New Testament not only of Christ but also of his
followers; in these cases Jesus becomes the shepherd and they become his flock.
Jesus searches for the lost sheep until he has found it, leaving all the
"safe" sheep to look after themselves in the meanwhile.
Christ,
as the victim who reveals God's love for us, is often symbolized by a lamb. For
Christians, he is the "lamb" described in the Book of Isaiah:
"harshly dealt with, he bore it humbly; he never opened his mouth: like a
lamb that is led to the slaughterhouse, like a sheep that is dumb before its
shearers, he never opened his mouth."
When
Peter is entrusted with the flock of the Lord, Peter is told to
"feed" his sheep and lambs. Jesus sends his followers out into the
world with no weapons, no money, no power - "like sheep among
wolves." People who die for believing in the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
for not defending themselves by partaking in violence, imitate Christ. To be
martyred is to be "like a lamb that is led to the
slaughterhouse." Lambs suffer violence; they do not inflict it. They
are universal symbols of innocence. Lambs have always been favourite
animals for sacrifice. When John the Baptist refers to Jesus as “the lamb
of God”, he means that Jesus was the Messiah, the one who in his life and death
would reveal the true nature of God.
The Real Meaning of Martyr
Baptism
gives us the grace of giving witness, and sometimes that might lead to the
ultimate witness of laying down our very lives because we are associated with
and marked by Jesus Christ. A martyr [Greek: a witness] is a person who,
for the Christian faith, freely and patiently suffers death at the hands of a
persecutor. Martyrs choose to die rather than deny their faith by word or
deed. They suffer patiently after the example of Christ, they do not
resist their persecutors. True martyrs die for holy causes. False
martyrs die for the most unholy of causes. The era of martyrdom is not
something of the past. It is still taking place all around us
today. In fact, the last century was one of incredible Christian
martyrdom.
The early
Christians, who bore witness to the truth of those facts upon which
Christianity rests, were liable at any time to be given a choice between death
and denial of their testimony. Many of them, refusing to deny Christ,
actually suffered death.
Martyrdom
gives credibility to authentic Christian witnesses who do not seek power or
gain, but give their own lives for Christ. They show to the world the power,
weaponless and full of love for men, that is given to those who follow Christ
to the point of the total donation of their existence. Thus Christians, from
the dawn of Christianity until our own time, have undergone persecution on
account of the Gospel, as Jesus proclaimed beforehand: If they persecuted me,
they will also persecute you (John 15:20)."
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