Reflections on the Mass: The Gloria, Part 2

In the second part of the Gloria, we proclaim the truths of our Lord Jesus Christ. We lift up our faith into worship, marveling in awe at Who Jesus is and what He has done for us.

Lord Jesus Christ, Only Begotten Son,

This is Who Jesus is, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. He is God incarnate, fully human and fully divine, one divine Person with two natures, in full unity without mixture. This is the truth of our faith. We proclaim it here in awe and wonder.

Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,

Jesus is God. He is our Lord, fully divine, equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit. Yet He is also the Son of the Father. This is a mystery that our human minds cannot completely comprehend, yet we believe it because God has revealed it.

When Jesus came among us as God-incarnate, He became the Lamb of God. This is how John the Baptist identified Him, and no Jew of Jesus' day would have mistaken the significance. A lamb was a sacrifice. It indicated the people's desire to acknowledge and atone for their sins, to be right with God, to worship Him in the way He desired to be worshiped. But the blood of an animal would never actually atone for sin or fix the damaged relationship between God and humanity. That required something more, Someone more.

You take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Jesus came to truly atone for sins, to reestablish the covenant intimacy between God and humanity through a new covenant. He died on the cross to do it. Now we beg for His mercy, and we are blessed, for He longs to pour it out upon us.

You take away the sins of the world, receive our prayer.

We repeat, marveling once again, that Jesus came to save us from our sins. He has taken away our sins, nailing them to the cross. But are we willing to give them up? We beg Jesus to receive our prayer for His grace so that we can immerse ourselves in His mercy and let go of our sins with true repentance.

You are seated at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us.

The cross was not the end for Jesus. He died, yes, but He rose again and ascended into Heaven where He is seated at the right hand of the Father to intercede for us always. He opened the gates of Heaven so that we can join Him there. And what is more, we can begin living eternal life now by His grace, especially in Holy Mass as we receive Him, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Eucharist.