"Behold, the Lamb of God..."

Deacon Kandra tells the great story of an authentic witness to Jesus.  Excerpts:

...Dunston McNichol was a financial reporter and investigative journalist for the Newark Star-Ledger.  He was known by everyone in the business as “Dusty.” A few years ago, he won a Pulitzer Prize for uncovering a financial scandal in the McGreevey administration.  Earlier this month, Dusty McNichol died suddenly and unexpectedly at home.  He was 54.

By all accounts he was a diligent, soft-spoken reporter of remarkable integrity and tenacity.

He was also a devoted Catholic.

A couple weeks ago, he was buried from his parish church in Trenton.  After his funeral, one of Dusty McNichol’s colleagues – a non-Catholic — came up to the deacon at the mass and asked if it was true that his church was open all night.  And the deacon said yes.   The other reporter was amazed, and then told a story that that shed light on the life, and the faith, of Dusty McNichol.

A few years ago, when New Jersey legislators were working around the clock on a budget deal, Dusty told one of his colleagues that he couldn’t stay through the night.  He said had an appointment at the church at two in the morning, and he had to keep it.   Other people on staff agreed to cover for him, but they all wondered why he had to be at the church in the middle of the night.

Well, as the deacon explained to Dusty’s friend, they have perpetual adoration at the parish; when the Blessed Sacrament is exposed, it can never be left alone.  And Dusty McNichol – this seasoned investigative reporter who made his living uncovering crime and corruption – had signed up to be there from two to three a.m.  He was committed to spending that hour with Jesus.  It was a commitment he just couldn’t break.

And so it was that Dusty McNichol gave his own testimony.

With that, he proclaimed the divinity of Christ and — like John the Baptist two millennia before him — he testified to what he knew to be true.

By barely uttering a word, Dusty McNichol declared: “Behold, the Lamb of God.”

In John’s gospel, there is no nativity story, no background about Jesus or his ancestry.  Instead, there is this: “Behold the Lamb of God.”  This is St. John’s Annunciation.  Here, God’s entrance into human history isn’t heralded by angel.  It is proclaimed, instead, by a prophet on the banks of a river.  One solitary man sees another, and cannot help but bear witness – to “testify” – and cry out for the world to look and to believe:

“Behold, the Lamb of God...”