"Behold the Lamb!"

John the Baptist is the great voice of Advent, the one who speaks forth as the great prophet, making a highway for our God and Savior to be born.

As well, he is also the great servant of the liturgy, reminding us that it must be the Lamb of God we encounter in the proclamation of the Word and the sacrament of the Eucharist. John speaks to remind us to shun all deformations and human manipulations of the sacred liturgy that might distort and pervert its purpose. We cannot be saved by human agendas. We can only be saved by God - the God for whom we prepare in these four sacred weeks.

Let us celebrate the liturgy free of errors and carelessness, that all of God's people might truly "Behold the Lamb", and then be truly free. Let us place the sacred first; thus we place God first and "meet Christ in the liturgy."

Meeting Christ in the Liturgy offers a reflection for the Second Sunday of Advent.

(Art: Caravaggio,St. John the Baptist c. 1604. Oil on canvas, 172,5 x 104,5 cm,Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City.)