In the city of Werden, Germany, there stands a Catholic Church with a lamb carved out of stone and placed on its roof.
It was said that when the Church was being built, a stone-carving mason fell from a high scaffold. His co-workers rushed down, expecting to find him dead. But to their surprise and joy, he was alive and only slightly injured. How did he survive?
A flock of sheep was passing beneath the tower at that time, and he landed on top of a lamb. The lamb broke his fall and was crushed to death, but the man was saved. To commemorate that miraculous escape, he carved a lamb in stone and placed it on the tower, in gratitude for the lamb that saved his life.
Today we are here at this Liturgy to remember and salute another Lamb Who died a cruel death to save not just one man, but all mankind. In today’s Gospel, John the Baptist introduces Jesus as the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
Peter said that the full weight of our sins fell upon Jesus (1 Pet. 2:24). And the apostle Paul explained, “For our sake [God] made [His Son Incarnate] to be sin who did not know sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in [Jesus]” (2 Cor. 5:21).
We all have fallen in sin, but on the cross Jesus took the punishment for our sin upon Himself. He now offers eternal life to all who personally put their Faith in Him (Jn. 3:1-16).
Submitted by Fr. Joseph Dovari