You're listening to the I Pray with the Gospel Sunday Reflection on the St.

Jose Maria Institute podcast.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me.

I adore you with profound reverence.

Ask your pardon for my sins and the grace to make this time a prayer fruitful.

My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my Father and Lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me. The second Sunday in ordinary time. A reading from the

Gospel of John, chapter 1. The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold the Lamb

of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

This is he of whom I said, after me comes a man who ranks before me,

for he was before me.

I myself did not know him, but for this I came baptizing with water

that he might be revealed to Israel.

Behold the Lamb of God, the priest says during Mass when he lifts up the body of Christ.

Behold Him who takes away the sins of the world.

The reference to the Lamb makes sense, as you know, in the Jewish tradition.

A lamb was sacrificed every year at Passover. It commemorated

the liberation of Israel. That sacrifice saved the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt,

but it did not forgive sins. The new lamb of God was to be sacrificed once and for all. That lamb had

power to release us from the slavery of sin. Just as the lamb was

sacrificed in Jewish homes, so too Jesus the Lamb of God was sacrificed. They drained its blood.

Likewise, Jesus lost his blood during his passion. Just as the blood of the Lamb on the doorpost was a sign of

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