John says two times today, "I did not know Him myself." Yet, he did recognise Jesus upon meeting Him based on what was revealed to him by God - the man on whom he sees the Spirit come down and rest is the one. And thus, John proclaims with confidence, "This is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world." The reason John recognises Jesus is to point Him out and reveal Him to Israel - the One who is to abolish sin.

Can we say, "I did not know Jesus myself?" Perhaps there was a point when we did not really know Jesus, but reading this page shows that we do know Jesus. Otherwise, we would not be reading this SHALOM reflection. All glory and praise to Jesus for bringing us closer to Him each time we reflect on the daily Mass readings.

The first reading today highlights again that we are all God's children. God has drawn us to Himself and lavished such great love upon us. The future has not yet been revealed; all we know is that when it is revealed, we shall be like God because we shall see Him as He really is. To know Jesus is to see and know God. What a privilege! It is a great privilege to know and believe in the most holy name of Jesus, which means God saves! As God's beloved children, we follow Jesus closely, the Saviour of the world.