Behold the Lamb: Recognizing Jesus in a Crowded Room

Have you ever looked across a crowded room and seen somebody who seems tremendously familiar, but you can’t seem to really place him or her? To recognize someone is a lot different from getting to know someone for the first time. We long for the familiar. Our brains are wired that way, even when we think that we are craving new adventures. Once you are sure that you recognize the person, you might cross the room and introduce yourself, or rather re-introduce yourself. Recognition precedes action.

Something similar happens in the way we enter a relationship with God. Even though we might live far from him, we have a “God-size” hole in our souls that can only be filled by him. St. Augustine commented that our hearts are made for God and they are restless until they find him. Augustine himself had a cursory knowledge of God before his wild years of dissolute life and searching. Yet, when he finally found God, it was much more a coming back than a new discovery.

John the Baptist knew Jesus. Some speculate that as cousins, they would have shared experiences growing up. However, it is especially at the Baptism that the Spirit reveals to John who Jesus is. He has a deep Spirit-driven knowledge of the Messiah. When he saw Jesus coming to be baptized, he knew this man was different from everyone else he would pour water over and invite to conversion that day (cf. Jn. 1:29-34). John recognizes Jesus and then he sends his disciples to follow him. We can live this same dynamic in our lives.

First, we need to recognize Jesus in the liturgy, through prayer, and through service to others. Jesus is present to us through the liturgy. The words of the Gospel are recalled in the Mass: “Behold, the Lamb of God.” (Jn. 1:29). Through liturgical language, the entire Mass points us to the mysteries of the life of Christ. By participating in the liturgy, we draw closer to him and get to know him more intimately. Pope John Paul II reminded us that

To contemplate Christ involves being able to recognize him wherever he manifests himself, in his many forms of presence, but above all in the living sacrament of his body and his blood (Pope St. John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 6).

The real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is encountered most fully within the liturgy. Every time we leave Mass, we should recognize Jesus a little more deeply.

We also get to recognize Jesus through prayer. For John the Baptist, prayer was an opportunity to remember in the light of the Spirit who Jesus truly was. He had spent many hours with Jesus and prayer was an opportunity to enter into dialogue through remembering. There should be some aspect of this in our own prayer. By opening our hearts to him in prayer, we get to know who Jesus is.

The interweaving of God’s remembrance with that of man is also at the center of the Eucharist, which is the “memorial” par excellence of the Christian Passover. For “anamnesis”, i.e., the act of remembrance, is the heart of the celebration (Pope St. John Paul II, 4 October 2000, 3).

Getting to know Jesus always has an aspect of remembering. Our contact with God is always His initiative. We may feel that we want to pray, but it is always a response to God’s initiative. The same thing happens with service.

We get to know him through service as well. When we lower ourselves to serve others, we participate in the saving mission of Jesus and grow closer to him by becoming more like him. When we sit with someone lonely, forgive when it costs us, or serve without being noticed, Christ slowly becomes recognizable in our own gestures. How often did the disciples serve with Jesus and thus become more like their master? This would prepare them for their apostolic ministry once he had returned to Heaven at the Ascension.

Once we know Jesus, this knowledge compels us to follow him. Because He is all-wise and all-good, we are called to follow him more closely. Recognition precedes action, and in the following of Christ, there is a mysterious union. Where is Jesus asking to be recognized more explicitly in your life right now? Some of the same actions that help us get to know Jesus are precisely the ways we follow Him: liturgy, prayer, and service. We want to become like John the Baptist, knowing and following Jesus ourselves, so we can point the way to him for others we meet in our daily lives. Look across the crowded room of your own life and proclaim to one person: Behold the Lamb of God.