Behold the Lamb of God
by Fr. Joseph Evinger
One of the favorite parts of the Mass for me is when the priest holds up the broken host and calls out to the people who are the Lord’s flock: “Behold the Lamb of God! Behold him who takes away the sins of the world! Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb!” I love this proclamation, as it not only announces that God is before us in the Eucharist. It also announces to us that we are attending the supper of the Lamb, the eternal banquet of heaven now seen through the eyes of faith but made visible to us when we have persevered in faith to the end.
Furthermore, I love the way we all respond to this proclamation: “Lord I am not worthy…” This is so true. None of us are worthy to have the God of the universe enter under our roof, to enter into our body. None of us are worthy to have his blood flow with our blood in our veins. None of us are worthy as we have sinned and turned away from the Lord full heartedly and intentionally. None of us are worthy. Yes. Not even the poor priest. We are all sinners in need of mercy and continual love. We need Jesus to make us whole again and again. We need Jesus to have life within us. We need to eat Jesus’ flesh and drink his blood to live forever as Jesus tells us in chapter six of John’s Gospel. May we always receive this sacrament of sacraments with great fervor and love.