2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

2^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

18^th January 2026

Lectionary Readings: Isaiah 49:3, 5-6; Psalm 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10;

1 Corinthians 1:1-3; John 1:29-34

 We celebrate the second Sunday of Ordinary Time in the liturgy, and the Church, through the readings, introduces us to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, or the beginning of his public life.

There is a wisdom in these proposed texts that demands some attention. We should not begin at the end and remain there, but in the dynamics of the texts, the understanding of what comes later is already in the initial reading, but Christologized. That is, the experience of the resurrected Jesus is illuminated by and grounded upon the prophecy and faith transmitted throughout the history of Israel.

The reading from the Prophet Isaiah (49:3-6) practically establishes the program for the mission of Jesus’ followers. Firstly, the text refers to Israel, in the context of the Babylonian exile. However, it teaches that Israel’s vocation and God’s call have a universal dimension, reaching all nations. In truth, the project is God’s, encompassing everyone; however, God finds it necessary to pass through the particular, which is Israel: “To be a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” Israel is, therefore, the base from which God radiates to the world. And Israel is asked to always keep in mind what the Psalm tells us: “In the scroll of the book it was prescribed for me to do Your will. My God, I want to have Your Torah within my bowels.”

God, incarnating himself within the Jewish people, becoming a Jewish Man, materializes Israel’s vocation to “be a light unto the nations”. Israel is the bearer of all the riches that God has distributed to it for the sake of all humanity. As Paul affirms: “to the Israelites belong the filial adoption (hence the incarnation), the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple worship, the promises, the patriarchs, the Christ…” (Romans 9:4-5). Therefore, in Christ, the nations are associated with the reality of God of which Israel is the bearer. Israel does not lose its primacy, and the nations are emancipated before God. Through Jesus, the nations are adopted by the spirit (pneuma) and become participants in the promises given to Israel.

The proclamation of Jesus as the one who was to come, announced by the prophets and awaited by the Jewish people, is made from within the Judaism of Jesus’ time to the world. Therefore, the announcement of Jesus as the Messiah belongs to the Judaism of his time, but the Christological (=Messianic) elements precede Jesus himself.

In today’s Gospel, we see that the figure of John the Baptist represents the forerunner of the Messiah’s arrival, interpreted from numerous passages in Scripture, whether in the voice announcing his arrival, or in God’s action upon his anointed one, as in Malachi 3:22-23, which announces the return of the prophet Elijah before the great day of the Lord: “Behold, I will send Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.” Or also the first song of the Servant in Isaiah 42:1, which has the dimension of the Nations: “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations”.

Therefore, the reading of God’s Word must first and foremost be done from a perspective of faith and theology. The historical context is fundamental, and God’s Word must have implications for history, but it is in the light of fidelity to God’s Word, read, interpreted, and experienced by the people of Israel, of whom Jesus is a part and who lived that Word, that the incarnation takes on its meaning and the proclamation of the Gospels can be better understood.

[Copyright © 2026]