The Gospel for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany is John 1:29-42. It begins with the witness of John the Baptist to Jesus. Because we know that Elizabeth and the Virgin Mary were some kind of cousins, we may imagine that Jesus and John the Baptist were personally close,. Yet, Scripture gives a different impression of the two men as adults. While Matthew 3 indicates that John recognizes Jesus' holiness, the Baptist only comes to sense Jesus' unique identity and mission by divine revelation. In John 1:32, we read: "And John bore witness: 'I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.'" Through divine inspiration, John sees that Jesus is the Son of God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and John's witness leads some of his followers to follow Jesus.
At times, we may still be a little like John the Baptist. We may recognize Jesus' holiness and respect Him, but we need to go further through divine grace and inspiration. We need to acknowledge Jesus as the unique Son of God and the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. May John's witness motivate us to follow Jesus as it did the first disciples!
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