Nov 25: The Adoration of the Lamb

Jan van Eyck: The Ghent Altarpiece (Detail)

Thursday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Reading I: Rev 18:1-2, 21-23; 19:1-3, 9a

“ ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb (NRSV, Rev 19:9a).’ ”

Lord God, how precious the lamb was to our spiritual ancestors who were, we believe, the first to recognize and acknowledge you. They were traveling shepherds and the lamb was their livelihood. The lamb was what was most precious to them. When they sought your favor or your protection on their ongoing journey in search of pasture, they would offer you an unblemished gift, a lamb from the flock. It was offered, killed, cooked and eaten, a sacred meal, Lord, that you shared with them. The blood from the sacrificed animal was smeared on their tents as a reminder to you that they were your grateful people.

When the Israelites, Lord, rehearsed their deliverance from slavery in Egypt, what better way to remember it than by recalling a special meal that they celebrated the night before their departure, not that time in search of pasture, but of freedom. A lamb was offered to you, then slain and eaten in your presence, its blood smeared on the doorposts of the house. It was the precious lamb that brought them out of slavery and eventually into the freedom of the land.

The lamb for your people, Lord, symbolized your saving presence in their lives. It was the lamb that bound the people to you.

In your Son, Jesus the Christ, we who believe recognize that there is no need for an intermediary between you and us, no need for sacrifice offered over and over. In Jesus, in whom we believe that you have become one of us, we are immediately united to you. In Jesus, we recognize that there is no need to sacrifice the lamb, taken out of the flock, because you, Lord our God, take upon yourself our humanity and you, yourself, die with and for us.

We come to understand all of this through Jesus your Son and our brother. That is why we call him the true Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. That is why, as we live our lives fully in the present moment, we look forward also to that great feast when all will be reconciled, Lord God, with you. Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Alleluia. Amen.