Sunday 19th January 2020
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sung Parish Mass 10.15am.
Parish Masses at 8.30am and 6pm.
at St. Peter's Catholic Church SS9 4BX
Sung Parish Mass 10.15am.
Home to the Southend Ordinariate Mission
Perfect Offering:
Scott Hahn Reflects on the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings:
Isaiah 49:3, 5–6
Psalm 40:2, 4, 7–10
1 Corinthians 1:1–3
John 1:29–34
Isaiah 49:3, 5–6
Psalm 40:2, 4, 7–10
1 Corinthians 1:1–3
John 1:29–34
Jesus speaks through the prophet Isaiah in today’s First Reading.
He tells us of the mission given to Him by the Father from the womb:
“‘You are My servant,’ He said to Me.” Servant and Son, our Lord was
sent to lead a new exodus—to raise up the exiled tribes of Israel, to
gather and restore them to God. More than that, He was to be a light to
the nations, that God’s salvation may reach to the ends of the earth
(see Acts 13:46–47).
Before the first exodus, a lamb was offered in sacrifice and its
blood painted on the Israelites’ door posts. The blood of the lamb
identified their homes and the Lord “passed over” these in executing
judgment on the Egyptians (see Exodus 12:1–23, 27).
In the new exodus, Jesus is the “Lamb of God,” as John beholds Him in the Gospel today (see 1 Corinthians 5:7; 1 Peter 1:18–19). Our Lord sings of this in today’s Psalm. He has come, He says, to offer His body to do the will of God (see Hebrews 10:3–13).
The sacrifices, oblations, holocausts, and sin offerings given after the first exodus had no power to take away sins (see Hebrews 10:4). They were meant not to save but to teach (see Galatians 3:24).
In offering these sacrifices, the people were to learn
self-sacrifice—that they were made for worship, to offer themselves
freely to God and to delight in His will.
Only Jesus could make that perfect offering of Himself. And through
His sacrifice, He has given us ears open to obedience, He has made it
possible for us to hear the Father’s call to holiness, as Paul says in
today’s Epistle.
He has made us children of God, baptised in the blood of the Lamb (see Revelation 7:14).
And we are to join our sacrifice to His, to offer our bodies—our
lives—as living sacrifices in the spiritual worship of the Mass (see Romans 12:1).
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