Dear Parishioners of Mary Immaculate and Saint Rose,
Well, all my Christmas decorations have been packed away for another year.  The house looks dull and barren.  The Church is in the midst of Ordinary Time and yet this Sunday John the Baptist cries out to us, “Behold, the Lamb of God.”
Just last week we completed the Christmas Season as we celebrated the Baptism of the Lord.  This week we continue the story, if not the season, and John gives us testimony as to who Jesus really is.  The very fact that John calls Jesus the Lamb of God bears witness as to what is to come.  What is the lamb that John is referring to?
First of all, it harkens back to the story of Abraham and Isaac.  God has promised Abraham an heir, and after years of waiting, the promise of a son is finally fulfilled. Just as Abraham rests in the security of the fulfilled promise, God asks him to sacrifice his beloved son.  So Abraham and Isaac head off into the wilderness.  Isaac carries the wood for the sacrifice.  He questions his father about the lamb for the sacrifice.  Abraham responds, “My son, God Himself will provide the lamb.” The two prepare the altar and just as Abraham prepares to sacrifice his son, the angel of God stops him.  God knows that Abraham would offer even his beloved son to Him.  They then find a lamb caught in a thicket and they offer it as a sacrifice to God.
The story of Isaac is a foreshadowing of the sacrifice on the Cross, but this time the beloved Son is not spared.  Jesus is the lamb Who is sacrificed for the sins of all of us.  God does provide the Lamb and it is His only Son.
Also in the Old Testament in the Book of Exodus is the story of the Passover.  This is the final plague upon the Egyptians.  The Israelites must eat the Passover and they must serve a lamb.  When they slaughter the lamb, they are to collect the blood of the lamb.  Then it is to be sprinkled above the door of each house so that when the angel of death passes over, all in the house marked with the blood of the lamb are spared.  But for the Egyptians, all their first born die. They are so distraught that they allow the Israelites to leave Egypt. 
It is through the Blood of the Lamb, that is, the Blood of Jesus, that we are spared and are set free from sin and death.  It is the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross that wins for us our salvation.
Thank You so much, my Jesus, for saving me through Your Precious Blood.  Behold the Lamb of God. . .my Lord. . .My beloved Savior.
Msgr. Cox

Lamb of God detail from the Ghent Altarpiece. Hubert and Jan van Eyck (c. 1430)