2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time A

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time A

Readings: Isaiah 49:3,5‑6  1 Corinthians 1:1‑3  John 1:29‑34

In these Sundays of Ordinary Time between the Christmas season and Lent, the Church presents us with the demands of our Christian vocation.  We are called to be a holy people who, like John the Baptist in the Gospel, give testimony to the presence of Jesus in our midst.  Let us open ourselves to the rigors of that call as we sing the refrain of this Sunday's responsorial psalm: "Here am I, Lord;/ I come to do your will" (Ps 40:8a and 9a).

            In the first reading the prophet Second Isaiah speaks of Israel's vocation in the language of a prophetic call.  Influenced by the humiliation of the nation's exile in Babylon, Second Isaiah envisions a new task for Israel; it is to be God's "servant" (`ebed).  Speaking as if he is servant, Israel, the prophet gives a first person report of Israel's coming to a new understanding of its vocation.  Not only is Israel called to repent of its sins in exile and be gathered to the Lord, but now it is to be "a light to the nations" by witnessing to the Lord's powerful action in bringing the nation home from exile. “The Lord said to me: you are my servant,/ Israel, through whom I show my glory./ Now the Lord has spoken who formed me as his servant from the womb,/ that Jacob may be brought back to him/ and Israel gathered to him;/ . . . It is too little . . . for you to be my servant,/ to raise up the tribes of Jacob,/ . . . I will make you a light to the nations,/ that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” 

Paul's greeting at the beginning of First Corinthians continues the theme of God's call.  In his salutation Paul stresses both his own call and that of the community at Corinth.   As he often does in his letters, Paul identifies himself by giving his apostolic credentials: "Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God".  His message is never simply his own; it is always related to his mission to be an apostle of the crucified and risen Christ.   "The Church of God that is in Corinth" also has a call based on what Christ has done for it.  Paul addresses the Corinthian Christians with the words:  "you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be a holy with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours."  This is language taken from the Hebrew Scriptures where Israel is called to be "kingdom of priests, a holy nation" (Exod 19:6; see also Lev 19).  As Paul will elaborate in the body of the letter, the Corinthians have been consecrated at a great price, the very blood of the crucified  Christ, which has made the whole community and the individuals who make it up, "the temple of God" and "the  body  of Christ" (see 1 Cor 3:16‑17; 5:12‑20; 11:17‑34; 12:12‑26). As such, they are called to live holy lives of loving consideration for one another (see 1 Corinthians 13).

This Sunday's Gospel is John the Baptist's testimony to Jesus from John's gospel.  The Baptist has the role of the first witness to Jesus' identity as the saving light who has come from God (see John 1:6‑9).  Therefore, when Jesus appears in Bethany across the Jordan, John immediately identifies him with the words: "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 who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.'"

John goes on to speak of his own task “in baptizing with water” in order to make Jesus “known to Israel.”  He admits that at first he did not recognize Jesus, but he testifies that “the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’”  When John sees the descent of the Spirit upon Jesus, he performs his task: “Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.” 

As we meditate on our own Christian vocations, we might humbly take John the Baptist as our model.  He does not proclaim himself or claim any title for himself (see John 1:19‑21).  He is content with the role of pointing to “the one among you whom you do not recognize” (John 1:26).  When the priests and Levites from Jerusalem ask John to identify himself, he simply says:  "I am ‘the voice of one crying out in the desert, "Make straight the way of the Lord,’” as Isaiah   the prophet said." (John 1:23)