Many have encountered Christ, but not all have recognized him as the Son of God. Jesus is a mystery, a mystery difficult to explain in human terms alone, said the well-known journalist Enzo Biagi. But John the Baptist, as we heard in the Gospel, arrived at this extraordinary confession. What was his journey? Let’s look at it briefly. Let’s note: John sees Jesus coming toward him and calls him the Lamb of God. He sees Jesus and calls him the Lamb of God. How is this possible? We know that all of the Baptist’s preaching was based on the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah speaks of the Servant of YHWH, who would give himself as a ransom for the redemption of the people. The Servant of YHWH and the Lamb of God are equivalent in biblical theology. What does this mean? Simple: the first step we must take to confess Jesus as the Lamb of God and subsequently the Son of God is to listen to the word of the Lord. Which, as Saint Peter reminds us, is a lamp shining in a dark place: Scripture leads us from ignorance to the understanding of Christ, from darkness to the light of faith. I say this because we Christians listen little to the Scriptures; little, and I would add poorly, that is, without perseverance, without passion, without true interest. But it’s not enough; we must Take a second step: accept his initiative. It is no coincidence that the evangelist introduces our passage by observing: “The next day, (John) saw Jesus coming toward
him…”. We seek Jesus; it is even more true that he seeks us, that he precedes us on this journey. There is a text, again from Isaiah, where God states: “When you call on me, I will say to you, ‘Here I am'” (cf. Isaiah 58:9). As if to say: you only need to call on me and I am already there, in your heart, in your life. But there is a third step to take. John the Baptist states: “After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me” (v. 30). A man… in Greek we have the term aner, which does not just mean a man, but the bridegroom, and we know that one name of the Messiah is precisely the bridegroom; wouldn’t John himself say that he is the friend of the bridegroom? So, when he says that Jesus is the aner, the bridegroom, he indicates that the long-awaited Messiah has arrived. And what does this mean? In every man there is an expectation of salvation, a need for meaning in order to live, to face the many existential problems.
Only the coming of the Messiah can fulfil this expectation. Well, the time has come. Jesus of Nazareth is the fulfilment, the salvation, the meaning, the profound reason for our living and working, for our living and dying. So, do we want to welcome him,
do we want to encounter him? Let us first listen to our profound needs for salvation, let them emerge. Let us then turn to the Scriptures and let them enlighten us, and finally let us look to Jesus, the long-awaited and invoked Messiah, the messianic bridegroom who even today prepares his wedding feast for us. The Eucharist we celebrate today, in the reading from the Fathers, is the ring of the bride, of the Church, the sign of an intimate reciprocity, of a fidelity without regrets or weaknesses, the concreteness of a love that does not disappoint.

Commentary by b. Sandro Carotta, osb
Abbazia di Praglia (Italy)

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves,
Prinknash Abbey