Daily Mass Reflection (Nov 25, 2024)

We Long to See the Face of the Lamb

We are now enjoying the full week of “revelation” of Christ’s kingship, which began this previous Sunday and will continue until next Sunday, the first of Advent. This cycle had historically been celebrated as an octave on the Church’s calendar much like Christmas and Easter (and Pentecost). Our first reading and Psalm reflect this desire for and fulfilled revelation of Christ’s kingship.

The Lamb standing on Mt. Zion is a reference to Jesus’s victory over death and institution of the New Covenant, a new kingdom of David, whose house was built on Mt. Zion. It is also where the Church of the Cenacle, or upper room, is located, which is the traditional location of the Last Supper and the descent of the Holy Spirit. Mt. Zion is in one sense a place of victory of Jews and Chrsitians, but it is the Lamb who is the true place of victory. This is similar to what Jesus said of the “temple of his body” in John 2 as the true place of God’s presence and worship. 

The Psalm refers repeatedly to those who long to see the Lord’s face. These are all who serve God faithfully, but in a special way those of the Old Covenant. This Psalm would be sung by those ascending the Temple Mount as they approach the presence of God. Hear, they would see the “bread of the presence,” which is also translated “bread of the Face,” because it would show, in a limited way, the incarnational reality of God. Christians, of course, would see the fulfillment of this “presence,” “face,” and “bread” in the Incarnation itself, Jesus Christ, and his institution of the Eucharist. Let us expect it with the same sense of longing as our Jewish forebears.