Behold The Lamb Of God

 

John the Baptist sees Jesus and exclaims, "Behold the Lamb of God!,"  the sacrificial lamb without blemish who will die for us, a sinless sacrifice for the remission of sin. Benedict XVI comments:

Jesus celebrated the Passover without a lamb and without a temple; yet, not without a lamb and not without a temple. He himself was the awaited Lamb, the true Lamb, just as John the Baptist had foretold at the beginning of Jesus' public ministry: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (Jn 1: 29).

And he himself was the true Temple, the living Temple where God dwells and where we can encounter God and worship him. His Blood, the love of the One who is both Son of God and true man, one of us, is the Blood that can save. His love, that love in which he gave himself freely for us, is what saves us. The nostalgic, in a certain sense, ineffectual gesture which was the sacrifice of an innocent and perfect lamb, found a response in the One who for our sake became at the same time Lamb and Temple.

Thus, the Cross was at the centre of the new Passover of Jesus. From it came the new gift brought by him, and so it lives on for ever in the Blessed Eucharist in which, down the ages, we can celebrate the new Passover with the Apostles.

From Christ's Cross comes the gift. "No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord". He now offers it to us.

 

Yes, in his body and blood, given and shed for us on the Cross, the all sufficient sacrifice made present for us on the Altar. Receive this gift.

Two of John's disciples follow Jesus after the Baptist's witness, they want to know where Jesus is staying. He answers them, "Come and see." They do, and acknowledge him as the Christ, "We have met the Messiah." We ask the same, where does God reside? Not least in his death for us on Calvary, made present in the Mass, from which flows the forgiveness of sins and life itself.

Do not scorn this but instead draw near with faith to Christ and in our communions meet the holy Lamb of God. Then proclaim him as the Spirit anointed Son of God, the Savior.

In Aeternum,

LSP

HOC EST CORPUS MEUM

 

Today we stand in the Upper Room as Christ institutes the Eucharist, the Sacrament of the Altar, in which He gives himself body and blood for the remission  of sin. A perfect sacrifice made present under the form of bread and wine. Farrer speaks to this via Chantblog:

Do the disciples understand the nature of the bond? Jesus has blessed his food, to be the body he will offer in his sacrifice; do they know that they are committed to membership in such a body as that?  A body flogged, broken, crucified - see, he crumbles the loaf before their eyes.  Do they perceive the new meaning in the ancient custom, the breaking of the bread?  Are they willing to be parts of such a body, are they willing that his body, with its sacrificial destiny, should be theirs?  The disciples were not yet fully willing, but they came to be, and so we all must; for if we do not want to be given and surrendered to God, why touch religion at all?  By partaking of the sacrificial body, we are to be made capable of sacrifice, taken up, as we are, into the sacrificial being of Christ. (From Austin Farrer's address "This is my Body", given at the 1958 Eucharistic Congress, in Said and Sung.)

Soldats, Attention!  if we do not want to be given and surrendered to God, why touch religion at all?  By partaking of the sacrificial body, we are to be made capable of sacrifice, taken up, as we are, into the sacrificial being of Christ. Yes indeed, and you'll note Exorcists rate the Latin Rite and the new one not at all.

God Bless,

LSP

The After Mass

 

One of the things that happens here is that we meet at 5.30 pm on Thursdays to worship God in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and no, this doesn't mean we blasphemously attempt to repeat the one all-sufficient sacrifice of Christ but rather, by grace, unite ourselves to it. 

Magnum mysterium, to put it mildly, sacramental unity with our Lord's paschal offering of himself for our atonement on Calvary. And right there in supernatural power  in Bosque County, Texas, there on the Altar was Christ's Body and Blood given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins and the reconciliation of Man to God.

Heaven, for a moment, breaks through to us and we to heaven, "peace be to this house." Then we're dismissed with a benediction and vale, "May almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, this night and forevermore. The Mass has ended, go in peace to love and serve the Lord."

Reflect on this. If Christ is truly present in the Mass, if we meet him and enter into communion with him in the Eucharist, for the forgiveness of of our sins, if all this is true how could any faithful person not want, fervently, to meet our Lord at the Last Supper which is Holy Communion? Yes, judgement for sure, but also mercy and infinite compassion.

That in mind, I was heartened by the congregation this evening, our worship is growing, and waved goodbye to the guys, "See you Saturday (men's group), I'm going fishing." And there it was, Soldiers Bluff, resting under a hot Texan sun, just a minute or two away from the church.

It was beautiful to be out by the water as the sun began to set and fun to catch a scad of little perch who went back in to fight again another day.

God bless you all,

LSP

Some Good News

 

Good news? That's preposterous, so-called LSP, if that's your real name, which we doubt. But not so fast, punters, there is good news and here it is. The sun shines, the sky is blue, devoid of chemtrails, and the sacrifice of the Mass was offered this morning, not once but twice.

And there were the faithful, and they are, coming together to worship God, hear his Word and receive the Sacrament of the Altar, his Body and Blood, in which we find union with Our Lord's paschal sacrifice on Calvary and with it the forgiveness of sin and a share, even now, in the glorious risen life of the empty tomb.

Therein lies sanctification, freedom, hope and glory, right here in North Central Texas and I say that unreservedly. On topic, if you'd said in the '90s that I'd be  Priest in Charge of two small rural missions in Texas I'd have laughed. Hardly grand enough, where's that stone Altar and polychrome reredos. 

But the joke would've been on me. I'll leave you to do the spiritual math. In the meanwhile, have a beautiful Sunday and as always, God bless you all.

Shoot straight,

LSP