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Reverend Father,

I have been following you for a long time and I really hope that you can solve a worry.

Assuming that I am convinced that our Holy Mother Church is never wrong, especially in liturgical matters, I would like you to clarify a doubt that I have about the Holy Mass and that regularly distracts me (because it makes me look for an explanation that I do not have).

When the agnus is recited, it is said that He “takes away the sins of the world”. Well, it does not seem to me that even for a fraction of a second it can be said that there are no sins in the world! If that sentence were correct, we would have to deduce that the Lord is rather ineffective (forgive me the blasphemy)!

Is this not a mistranslation of “tollis”, which instead would mean “brings upon Himself” (to lead them to the Father and invoke His mercy)? 

We are at the culmination of the Sacrifice, on Calvary: the Lord is about to be bloodlessly sacrificed. Thanks to His story, we can now lay down our abundant sins in His glorious Wounds before the Consecration. In this way, “tollis” would make full sense.

I am well aware that the announcement comes from John the Baptist: precisely because it was coming from him, he announces who is the Lord who will soon take away the sins of the world by reopening Paradise for us (it is a certainty, so you can afford to use the present tense).

I thank you in advance.

Oremus pro invicem,

Luke (Luxembourg)

Priest’s answer

Dear Luca, 

1. On the verse in John’s Gospel in which the Baptist “saw Jesus coming toward him and said, «Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.» (Jn 1:29), St Thomas comments: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away, that is, blots out, the sins of the world.

Such an effect under the law could not be achieved by the lamb or any other sacrifice; for as the author of the letter to the Hebrews says: “for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats take away sins.” (Heb 10:4).

This blood takes away, i.e., erases the sins of the world. “It takes away all guilt”, as the prophet Hosea puts it (14:3). 

2. St. Thomas continues: “Or take away in the sense that he takes upon himself the sins of the whole world; for as St. Peter wrote, he bore our sins in his body (1 Pet 2:24); or as Isaiah says, “it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured” (Is 53:4). 

3. Therefore, according to St Thomas, both of these translations can fit, all the more so since the Greek verb airòn (in the gerund) in John’s Gospel means both to take and to take away.

4. The Latin translation of the Gospel uses the verb tollo, which means to remove, to eliminate.

5. You write: “We are at the culmination of the Sacrifice, on Calvary: the Lord is about to be bloodlessly sacrificed…”.

Actually, the Lord has already sacrificed Himself. He has done it once and for all as the letter to the Hebrews reminds us (cf. Heb 7:27).

At the moment of consecration he makes his sacrifice present.

6. You observe: if he takes away sins, how do sins remain?

Jesus on Calvary atoned for all sins in his blood, the sins of all mankind past, present and future. He did it once and for all.

You say: but the sins remain.

Yes, they remain because his sacrifice communicates its effects only to those who repent of it and to those who open themselves to its efficacy. Otherwise, unfortunately, it is rendered vain.

7. On the fact that he takes away the sins of those who repent of them at the present time, here is what an ancient commentator of the Holy Scriptures, Theophylact, who was taken into great consideration by St Thomas, writes on the very verse in question: “He does not say that he takes away; but that he takes away the sin of the world, as if he were always doing this to it; for he did not only take it away at the time when he suffered, but from then until the present time he takes away sin, without being continually crucified: for he offered one sacrifice for sins, but by it he continually purifies”.

These words of Theophylact are quoted by St Thomas commenting on the verse: he takes away the sins of the world (cf. Catena Aurea [Golden Chain], Gospel according to John 1:29).

8. Therefore your remark is right when you say that you prefer the translation: behold him  who takes upon himself the sins of the world.

But it is not right to say that translating “behold him who takes away the sins of the world” is wrong.

For in fact Jesus has already taken our sins upon himself once and for all, but now he takes them away from those who repent of them and open themselves to the efficacy of his sacrifice, especially through sacramental confession.

Many thanks for the Oremus pro invicem! (Let us pray for each other).

For my part, I assure you right away because I will be coming down shortly for the celebration of Holy Mass. 

But I will also do so later.

I wish you well and I bless you. 

Father Angelo