“Where you are is where God is.” - St. Teresa of Ávila
God is
here-in the ordinary, in the unfinished, in the fragile moments we often
overlook. What we call brokenness, chaos, or failure is precisely where God
chooses to dwell.
John stands at the edge of the river and
points. God is no longer an idea, a rule, or a distant promise. God is suddenly
present, embodied in ordinary time, in an ordinary body, on ordinary ground.
History is no longer just the stage where God acts; it becomes the place where
God chooses to dwell. Calling Jesus, the “Lamb of God” is not poetic softness;
it is a shock. We expected a Lion of God-strength that dominates, authority
that conquers, power that fixes everything. Instead, John names a God who
chooses vulnerability. A God who refuses to rule through force. A God who
chooses freedom over dominance, relationship over control, presence over power.
And then comes the phrase that reshapes
everything: “who takes away the sin of the world.” Not sins, plural. Sin,
singular. One fracture. One shared wound. One collective distortion. Just as
salvation is collective, so is brokenness. Evil is never only personal; it is
communal, historical, systemic. It lives in how we organize, consume, ignore,
protect, and dominate. None of us stands outside of it. We are implicated
because we are interconnected. No one can finally say, “I did nothing wrong,”
because we all belong to the same human story. The Lamb does not erase this
from a distance. The Lamb takes it. Carries it. Holds it. Forgiveness happens
through solidarity and closeness. God forgives the world by becoming part of
it. This is where incarnation becomes luminous. God becomes human. If God
becomes human, then it is good to be human. History is not abandoned. Incarnation itself
is already redemption. When the Spirit descends and remains on Jesus,
permanence replaces distance. God commits to humanity, to history, to the
whole. John even confesses, “I did not know him.” Recognition is always
unfolding. God continues to appear beyond our expectations, beyond our systems,
beyond our images of power.
This is why salvation cannot mean rescuing
individuals apart from one another. God is saving history. God is saving
humanity. God saves the whole. All came forth from God. Everything carries
God’s mystery. Everything is being drawn back into God-not because of
worthiness, but because of belonging. We are saved because we are connected. The
Lamb reveals a God who would rather be wounded with us than worshiped without
us.
- Lilly Pushpam PBVM
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