“John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ”Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world…” (Jn 1,29)  In our gospel reading John the Baptist points the way to Jesus as the Lamb of God, the one who is to come to save God’s people.  The testimony of John is given as an invitation to an encounter with Jesus the Christ.  It is not just a bit of news that he is sharing with the people but rather it is an itinerary for new life, for fulfillment and for an answer to God’s call given in baptism.  The encounter with Jesus, the Lamb of God, is an encounter with the son of God who can lead us to the Father and to eternal life in his kingdom.  “Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.” (Jn 1,34)  When we listen to the word of God proclaimed and celebrate the sacraments we come to this encounter with the Lord of life.

     The beginning of our itinerary on our pilgrim journey to the Kingdom of God is a personal encounter with Jesus the Christ.  Jesus is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.  Our journey of discipleship begins with an encounter with a person who is light, truth and life.  It begins with new life, new meaning and new purpose for our lives.  The grace of God continues its work throughout our lives, through the indwelling Spirit, conforming us more and more to Jesus until it reaches its fullness and everything in our lives is subjected to him “so that God may be all in all.” (1Cor 15,28)  The end that we seek in our journey of discipleship, our hope, must also be Jesus.  Each day we seek to be more and more like Jesus and to enter deeper and deeper into communion with him.  “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed.  We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”  (1Jn 3,2)  To be a disciple of Jesus we must keep Jesus at the center of our lives.  “Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.” (Jn 15,5)  With Jesus at the center of our lives, our lives will flourish and bear good fruit, filling our lives with meaning and purpose.  Without Jesus in our lives we will amount to nothing.

     To keep Jesus at the center of our lives means that he must be the center of our marriages, our families and our careers.  Our plan of life must to be to submit all things to Jesus.  We must constantly seek the will of the Father in all areas of our life, just as Jesus  did.  Everything that we do is consecrated to Jesus and is directed to the glory of the Father.  Everything is a sacrament of his presence in our lives.  This itinerary of discipleship gives us a profound interior freedom, open to receiving the superabundant gifts of life that God has for us.

     In order to keep Jesus at the center of our life, we must remain close to him.  In order to remain close to Jesus we must be faithful to a life of prayer.  We must pray in community, in our homes, our marriages and our families, and in the Church.  We must also pray personally, sanctifying all of our life’s experiences to his purpose.  “Behold, the Lamb of God.”  Our deepest prayer is simply to behold the beauty of Jesus and see how he works in our lives, loving us, showing us the mercy of the Father, and leading us to streams of life-giving waters.  Adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, gazing upon his close presence and offering everything we have to him draws us ever closer to him.  We must “see him as he is.”  Not only do we gaze upon him but we allow him to look upon us.  Nothing is hidden from him.  We open our hearts and the deepest places in our interior being to the merciful gaze of our Lord.  Jesus always will look upon us with deep love and compassion.  Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away our sin and our shame.  We have nothing to fear from Jesus.  The light of his loving gaze will free our hearts to serve him more purely.

     The itinerary of our spiritual journey of discipleship should always include time spent in the intimacy of the presence of Jesus.  Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament will keep us close to Jesus and will keep him at the center of our lives.