When John the Baptist was walking along the Jordan and encountered Jesus, he told his disciples, “Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!”³ At that moment, the full meaning of the Paschal lamb in Exodus was clear – “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”⁴ In the course of the Mass, we too hear the words, “Behold the Lamb of God.” What should be our thoughts and attitudes at that time? We should respond in the same way as John’s disciples who, upon hearing that they were in the presence of the Lamb of God, came and saw where He was staying and stayed with Him.⁵ Spending that time with Christ by remaining and staying with Him is the only proper response. To know that I am in the presence of God, love Incarnate, and remain indifferent, is to reject that love. So too, if I do not make my encounter with Christ in the Mass the most important thing in my life upon which everything else depends, I have failed to see that I have before me the pearl of great price for which I must be willing to sell everything in order to possess it.⁶ Therefore, it is important to remember that when we recite the words of the Agnus Dei, the Lamb of God, we, like John the Baptist, are bearing witness to this great Sacrament of Love.

But how do we participate in this love two thousand years after the birth of Christ? Generations of Jews who lived after the Exodus from Egypt would have asked this same question about the Passover. The answer can be found in the Lord’s instructions to Moses: “You shall observe this rite as an ordinance for you and your sons for ever…and when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ You shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt.’”⁷ Notice that the Passover is not only a commemoration of a past event, but a present reality. In our participation in the Paschal mystery, we too are celebrating a present reality. We who are separated by thousands of miles and hundreds of years from first century Palestine are united in the eternal now to this great act of love that transcends time and space, for nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.⁸

Returning again to the Upper Room, Saint John tells us, “Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”⁹ Obviously, the Apostles were those whom Jesus loved who were in the world, but it likewise applies to us who are still on this side of heaven. When Jesus reclined at table with His Apostles and when He comes to us on the altar, He does so that He might remain with His beloved for all time. If such love would compel Christ to find a way to remain with us even after He ascended to the Father, should not a reciprocal love on our part compel us to remain with Him in the Eucharist? “For the love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one died for all; therefore all have died.”¹⁰

3 John 1:29
4 John 3:16
5 John 1:39
6 Cf. Matthew 13:45-46
7 Exodus 12:24 (emphasis added)
8 Cf. Romans 8:38-39
9 John 13:1
10 2 Corinthians 5:14

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