As the Church marks the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Fr. Edmund Power reflects on the theme: ‘A light to the nations’.
By Fr. Edmund Power, OSB
A sheen of light continues to hover over liturgical time, even after last Sunday’s feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which officially brings the Christmas Season to a conclusion. The traditional end date, however, was February 2, the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple.
In fact, we are still in “epiphanic” time: the manifestation of the divine presence in human life, a presence that can be witnessed only in the light.
This year the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time falls on January 18, which is always the first day of the octave of prayer for Christian Unity, when we implore the Lord that divisions within his flock may find their resolution, that they may be one (Jn 17:11).
The prophetic word of Isaiah today in the first reading urges an unrestricted universality, an inclusiveness that knows no boundaries: I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.
This openness to others stands in contrast to the nationalistic sense of privilege that we not infrequently find in the Old Testament.
If we reflect on the daily realities of our social and political lives, we can see how challenging and controversial such an openness may be. Protectiveness and exclusion are often mechanisms used to defend something we fear to lose.
And what about you? Do you believe that the prophet’s words, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, may be applied to you, and to all of us individually? Surely it is not only the famous or prominent or powerful that are chosen as the instruments of his will?
I suggest that each of us is equally important in the heart of God, and whatever way we try to bring light to the world is valuable.
It is noteworthy the phrase, I will give you as a light to the nations because it suggests not simply that you bring light but that you be light: in other words, that your way of living and believing, of hoping and loving, should actually be an epiphany, a manifestation of the divine presence.
In the Gospel today, we have the epiphany of Christ as the Lamb of God, announced by the prophetic words of John the Baptist.
Note John’s curious repetition of the phrase, I myself did not know him. The Baptist was sensitive and alert to various signs, and therefore able to recognise the reality of Jesus.
He was able to voice the “paschality” of the moment, the fact that the transformation of the world’s failure (who takes away the sin of the world) would require a sacrifice: in the words of the book of Revelation, attributed to John, the author of the fourth Gospel, I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, by whose blood the world is ransomed (cf Rev 5:6, 9).
Let us ask the Lord today that the light to the nations may illuminate our hearts, so that we may recognise his presence among us and in our world, even when the blatancy of things seems to proclaim darkness.
