Behold the Lamb

Reflection for January 18, 2026 — The Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, John the Baptist sees Jesus approaching and proclaims, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” Find the daily reading here.

Behold the Lamb

“Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”

Be honest. When the priest or deacon read this line from the Gospel today, did your brain finish it with: “Blessed are those who are called to the supper of the Lamb”? (Mine did. And then I almost blurted out: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul will be healed.” Because it’s Sunday morning, and I’m tired.)



We hear the words of John the Baptist every Sunday in the Agnus Dei. If you have been Catholic since childhood, the words of this rite are probably ingrained in your memory, like a groove worn across a wooden floor by the scratching of an often-used chair. That’s the beautiful thing about our liturgy: it gets inside of you, and it doesn’t leave. I’ve never met a Catholic, however long-fallen-away, who did not recall the responses of the Mass.

When the priest says or chants the Agnus Dei, he is showing us the Host — the most ordinary-looking thing you ever did see. Nothing interesting about it whatsoever. Nothing that would make a person give it a second glance.

John the Baptist recognizes Jesus when he sees him, though there is nothing extraordinary-looking about him. There is nothing that would make a person give Jesus a second glance, if that person expected redemption to come in a loud, aggressive show of power.

And this is how Jesus comes to us today: veiled in the ordinary. He is in the people who are easiest to miss, the easiest to ignore, the easiest from whom it is to turn away.

Consider what the world could look like, if an instinct to love and reverence those people were as deeply ingrained in us as the beautiful words so easily on our lips: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul will be healed.”

©LPi