Our deepest identity. Sunday Reflections, 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

 

The Gospel of John (1:29-34)

Directed by Philip Saville

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

http://www.universalis.com/20230115/mass.htm

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel John 1:29-34 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)  

The next day John the Baptist saw Jesus coming towards him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

Léachtaí i nGaeilge 

Fr Barry Cairns and Mr  Dismas Shigeru Kato 

Fr Barry Cairns, a Columban priest born in New Zealand in 1931 who is still enthusiastically  testifying in Japan that this is the Son of God tells a story in a number of our Columban magazines of one of his parishioners, Mr Dismas Shigeru Kato, who is doing the same in his 90s.He became a Catholic as an adult. Only about one person out of 200 in Japan is a Catholic.  Father Barry tells us about his parishioner when they were both younger.

I would like to introduce Mr Dismas Shigeru Kato. He was born 91 years ago in a small fishing village called Kushimoto in Wakayama Province of Japan. In his youth and when drafted into the wartime army he built up a massive debt for alcohol at different bars.

Please continue at Bangor to Bobbio.