1/15/2023 (Sunday) Today’s gospel reading: John 1:29-34

29 John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.
30 He is the one of whom I said, ‘A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.’
31 I did not know him, but the reason why I came baptizing with water was that he might be made known to Israel.”
32 John testified further, saying, “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and remain upon him.
33 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.’
34 Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.”

1/15/2023 (Sunday) Today’s gospel reflection: John 1:29-34

Because John the Baptist is a cousin of Jesus, for sure they personally knew each other. Yet, the gospel reading above says twice (verse 31 and 33) that John did not know Him. Perhaps John did not know that his cousin Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and The Anointed One. However, through the power of the Holy Spirit, he now testifies (verse 34) that Jesus is the Son of God.

We too have been baptized with water, light, and with the Holy Spirit. That is why we professed that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and our savior. The question is, “Do we really Know Jesus?” or rather, how much do we know about Him? The truth is no matter how long we have known Him and no matter how intelligent we are, the capacity of our intellectual faculty is limited and we really do not everything about Him. But this fact does not in any way stop us from desiring and trying our best to know more about our Lord. In fact, it should be our prayer that Jesus reveals Himself to us so that we may not understand Him intellectually but that through the Holy Spirit, we can understand His will, His message, His plan for us.

As a starting point, we should at least understand like John the Baptist that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away our sins and the sins of the world. To recognize that we are sinners and that we need Jesus to save us from our sins is a giant step in our journey of faith. More importantly, we need to know that we are the reason for His coming, that God loves us so much that He sent Jesus for us (John 3:16). Additionally, we need to know that Jesus already died for our sins and we only need to believe in Him to be saved. Lastly, our faith is nothing without its manifestation, that is the fruit of our faith, a proclamation in words and in deeds that Jesus is truly the Son of God who lives in us.

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