Easter Monday
'When the fulness of time came and God sent his Son' upon our earth, the Word made Flesh, after thirty years of hidden life, manifested himself to men. He came to the river Jordan, where John was baptizing. No sooner did the holy Baptist see him, than he said to his disciples: 'Behold the Lamb of God! Behold him who taketh away the sin of the world!' By these words the saintly Precursor proclaimed the Pasch; for he was virtually telling men that the earth then possessed the true Lamb, the Lamb of God, of whom it had been in expectation four thousand years. Yes, the Lamb who was fairer than the one slain by Abraham on the mount, and more spotless than the one the Israelites were commanded to sacrifice in Egypt, had come. He was the Lamb so earnestly prayed for by Isaias; the Lamb sent by God himself; in a word, the Lamb of God. A few years would pass, and then the immolation. But three days ago we assisted at his sacrifice; we witnessed the meek patience wherewith he suffered his executioners to slay him; we have been laved with his precious Blood, and it has cleansed us from all our sins.
laved - washed
immolation - kill or offer as a sacrifice
The Liturgical Year, 1850
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