News & Events
Second Sunday of Ordinary Time
Posted in News
18th January 2026
Gospel Jn 1:29-34 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.” John testified further, saying, “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and remain upon him. I did not know him, but 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.’ Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.”
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Homily
There are many causes in the world for which people are willing to give their time and energy and at times their very lives. Some of these causes we would consider good, others we would consider not worthy of our time and energy, but to those involved causes are always worthwhile. Some of us sympathize with specific causes, we talk about them, we argue about their validity, we might even give money to them, but we do not become actively engaged, we are armchair revolutionaries or more politely put, pacifists. Others are activists. They believe in the cause to such an extent that they give their time, energy, expertise, and at times their very lives.
In the gospel reading that we have for this weekend, St. John presents Jesus as the activist par excellence. We are told “John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” Notice the words used, “who takes away the sin of the world.” Jesus is no armchair revolutionary. He does not simply talk about the evil of sin; He goes out there and actively takes away the sin of the world. Jesus goes out there and tries to destroy the sinful structures which keep the people of his time in bondage. He preaches about and tries to build new structures, or said otherwise, new patterns of relationship between God and human beings and between human beings themselves. Through the exorcisms which he does He breaks the power of evil over those who suffer and finally gives his very blood because of this. He is indeed the sacrificial lamb who willingly goes to his death rather than abandon the struggle to take away the sins of the world. And so at the beginning of Ordinary time, the Church gives us this example as the barometer for our daily living.
The Church does this because we all live under sinful structures which are an obstacle to God’s vision of harmony for the world. The cause of the lack of harmony in the world is Sin and its various manifestations; selfishness, the greed of individuals and nations, the desire for prestige, the desire for power, not as a means of service but as a way to dominate.
As we live under these sinful structures and ways of life, God’s Spirit, the Spirit of truth, calls us in different ways, to overthrow these sinful structures so that true harmony may prevail. We hear the call but so often as Church and as individuals we trivialize sin; we resign ourselves to accepting evil on the grounds that it is inevitable and in any case we are powerless to do anything about it; we say to ourselves – and to others – that this is how life is and we must accept it; we blame others for the effects of sinful structures in their lives, saying that their misfortune is their own fault, they are lazy; they have no morals; we “spiritualize” sin, saying things like “we must hate sin but love the sinner”, “we pray for sinners”, “we are all sinners in our own way”, etc. These are all important (and Christian) sentiments, but in practice they are used all too often to cover up the fact that we are not “taking away” some evil in our community. So often we are simply armchair revolutionaries. This is so unlike the persons whom we venerate, Jesus and the saints, all heroes of the faith. Damian saw how the lepers were being treated on Molokai; he went and did something about it; Edmund Rice saw how the education of the poor was being neglected, he went and did something about it; Francis Libermann and Anne Marie Jahvouey saw how the ex-slaves were being treated they did something about it; Mother Teresa and her sisters saw how the poor dying on the streets were being treated, they did something about it. Today we remember and thank God for the volunteers, religious and lay, working in refugee camps, striving to take away the pain and suffering of refugees. These are no armchair revolutionaries; like Jesus they are activists, taking away sin and the effects of sin from our world.
As we thank God for these heroes of our faith, because the world is a better place because of them, we pray for the grace to imitate them. For us brothers, Missionaries of the Poor, we were founded to be disciples of Jesus, to continue the task, with the help of Jesus the Master, of taking away the sin of the world. The question for us is very simple; Are we being faithful to that task?
Prayer
All powerful and ever-living God, your son Jesus showed us the way by not being an armchair revolutionary. Help us his followers to commit ourselves to his cause; the fight against sin and the sinful structures which sin spawns. We ask this through the intercession of Mary, our Mother and your Son, Jesus. Amen
