There’s trouble afoot, a tumult among nations, words I recall from a version of Psalm Two. Current news on many fronts upsets me. I have questions about security now and protection for the future. How to keep a balance, get a grip, and know where to go? Who to turn to, and how might I help?
Once there was a preacher with quite some following. Till he found himself at odds with others over issues arising from his mission. For their safety, he wished his followers to leave. He would face his fate alone. Just then another preacher crossed their path. The very one for his followers to go after. “Look,” said the prophet John the Baptist, “There is the Lamb of God.”
The title Lamb of God was a recommendation from John to his followers. I suggest that it remains a recommendation to this day, to those seeking to survive a troubled world. For salutary light upon deepest anxieties, let us examine the portrait of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.
Agnus Dei, Lamb of God is woven into the Judeo-Christian tradition. Slave families in Egypt, at a desperate time, sacrificed a lamb or young goat, sprinkling its blood on their doorpost and on the beam above the doors of their houses. It was the first Passover and was to become an annual celebration of freedom.
On the last evening before his passion and death, it happened that family and friends were gathered with Jesus for their annual Passover Meal. There was a sacrificial lamb on the table. The family ate and drank in celebration, but there was more on their minds, especially his. The trouble he was in was affecting them all.
The real trouble was the break between man and God which had severely impacted his mission. He had seen it coming. He tried to warn his closest followers. Evermore clearly now he saw something about that lamb on the table, something he had first heard from John the Baptist. Jesus was himself to become the Lamb of God. In a new deal with God, he was required for the love of mankind to offer himself, body and blood, as Eternal Passover Lamb.
For Jesus, it was already a reality and the next day his offering would be complete. After supper, he prayed that if it was possible, he would not have to take the cup of suffering. He also prayed to his Father, not what I want, but what you want. God the Father would accept his offering, in the Resurrection that would follow. However, what might he best do to help his fellow human beings to accept his sacrifice, and participate in it in the ages to come?
As their Passover meal was ending, he called for another loaf and a new cup. He would provide mankind with a symbolic means of being in touch with their forever Lamb of God. Jesus the night before he died instituted the Holy Mass. In it symbolically and really, people might sit with the Lamb of God and his family including most especially his apostles. His own words would be pronounced over bread and wine.
Such gatherings would call on the Holy Spirit, would address God the Father, pray for peace in our days, and for the faith, peace, and unity of God’s Church. They would offer one another signs that expressed peace, communion, and charity. Then this chant:
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.
There’s more:
Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.
This is Holy Communion, the supper of the Lamb.
Something that takes place after the sign of peace has particular significance. The priest takes the host, breaks it, and places a small piece in the chalice. To signify that the broken Body of Christ and his Blood poured out are now repaired, and it is the Risen Lord who is with us. At Mass I see the Lamb of God at the Last Supper, I see him in his suffering and dying, and I also behold him in his rising from the dead. The priest says:
May this mingling of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ bring eternal life to us who receive it.
There is another line I can now add to my Lamb of God petition prayer. It is from the hymn ‘Glory to God in the highest’, used in Masses on many Sundays and special days,
Lamb of God, Son of the Father, you are seated at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us.
From these reflections, especially from the lines of the Lamb of God verses, prayer seems to be rising in my soul. To save me, to restore me, and to bestow a measure of freedom from persistent anxiety. Amidst so much tumult and so many questions, my hope is that the Lamb of God is making me more of a peacemaker than I might otherwise be.
Prayers of peace, softly may I say them, and humbly.
