Thursday after Epiphany, January 9, 2026

Luke 4, 14-22

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news of him spread throughout the whole region. He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all. He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.

St. Luke tells us that after Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan River, he immediately went out into the Judean wilderness where he fasted and prayed and overcame the temptations of the devil. St. John, in his Gospel, reports that Jesus spent some time, perhaps months or longer, living near the place where John continued to baptize. He could have sheltered in one of the innumerable niches and small caves which nature had cut out of the rock that abounded there. He met there during that time first Andrew and John the son of Zebedee, then Peter and later other men whom he would name Apostles such as Philip and Bartholomew. He then returned to Galilee and went about teaching that the Kingdom of Heaven was drawing near, meeting with a solid response: “He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all.” And then he came back to Nazareth, the town where he was raised. 

Calling Nazareth a “town” possibly gives it too much credit. Only a couple of hundred people dwelled there at that time. Little profitable work could be done there so laborers were obliged to hire themselves out at some of the larger towns in the west. Joseph and Jesus, as a young man, would have done so. It was a backwater and a byword even among other Galileans. But the inhabitants had their own civic pride, as people in such places do.

Jesus had preached and taught in many Galilean synagogues about the Kingdom, but here, in his hometown, surrounded by people who had known him all his life, he chose to reveal the truth about himself for the first time, quoting Isaiah 61, 1-2, a verse held to be messianic by the Pharisees: ““The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” 

We note here that the Lord Jesus did not proclaim himself to be the Son of God, in as many words, nor the King who was to come, nor even a prophet. He reveals himself as a servant — a dedicated and chosen servant of the Most High who came to serve the poor, captives, the blind, and the oppressed. He came to help those who could not help themselves. And when he had made this announcement, he rolled up the scroll and handed it back to the attendant as a sign that he had revealed his mission in its broadest terms and that there was no more to say.

Nazareth signifies for us the world in which we live, poorer than we like to think, and more lowly than we want to admit. We are its citizens, wrapped up in little concerns and thinking that what we see around us is all there is. We are provincial and pleased with our own wisdom. The Lord Jesus comes among us through his Church and tells us not only who he is, but who we are: the poor, captives, blind, and oppressed whom he has come to save. At first we nod in agreement because we have heard his words before though without thinking very much about what he meant. But now, he has told us and we understand. How will we take his words, and will we receive the service he offers?

Wednesday after Epiphany Sunday, January 6, 2026

Mark 6, 45-52

After the five thousand had eaten and were satisfied, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side toward Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. And when he had taken leave of them, he went off to the mountain to pray. When it was evening, the boat was far out on the sea and he was alone on shore. Then he saw that they were tossed about while rowing, for the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them. But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out. They had all seen him and were terrified. But at once he spoke with them, “Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!” He got into the boat with them and the wind died down. They were completely astounded. They had not understood the incident of the loaves. On the contrary, their hearts were hardened.

Out of compassion for the crowd of over five thousand people which had followed him away from the towns and into the rough country and spent the day listening to his teaching, the Lord Jesus performed a miracle in order to feed them.  He took the five loaves and two fish that the Apostles had and made so much food of these that twelve full baskets held the leftovers.  The Gospel reading for today’s Mass begins after the people have eaten.  St. Mark tells the full story of the Lord walking on the water, which St. John summarizes in chapter 6 of his Gospel.

“Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side toward Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd.”  After a day spent teaching the people and then feeding them, the Lord intended to spend the night alone in prayer and so he sends his disciples ahead.  Most likely they understood that he would have someone bring him in a boat later on.  It would be interesting to know what is meant by “he dismissed the crowd”.  Did he speak further to the people, or pray over them, or bless them?  We can only conjecture.

“And when he had taken leave of them, he went off to the mountain to pray.”  This is a lesson for those of us who work long days and think to shorten or even omit our night prayers.  The Lord “went off to the mountain” in order to pray.  It was as if this was the main event of the day, that all he had done earlier simply led up to this time of communion with his Father.  He prays the whole night; he only goes out to the Apostles at the fourth watch of the night, which just precedes the dawn.  “He was alone on shore.”  What an evocative little phrase!  The Creator of all things stands alone before sunrise and looks out at the tiny boat against the horizon, perhaps dimly lit by a full moon.  The stars would have filled the sky above him, and he would have heard the water of the sea brush the sandy shore.  The wind would have whipped about the hem of his garment.  Far out in the sea, a squall blew up suddenly.  “Then he saw that they were tossed about while rowing, for the wind was against them.”  Since the boat was still at sea after a full night, the Apostles must have been rowing right across it and not merely traveling down the coast a bit.  It is worth noting that Mark indicates that Jesus “saw” them.  This tells us that what he did next came in response to what he saw: “He came toward them walking on the sea.”  He  could have simply waited a little longer for light and then got a ride across in a boat.  Instead, he chose to walk “toward them”, wanting them to see him.  “He meant to pass by them.”  Perhaps the Lord explained this afterwards.  He showed himself walking on the water as a sign that they must persevere in the boat.  It is like a parent teaching her child to walk, giving space between her and the child so the child can see her, and desires to come to her, but the child must make its own unaided steps to do so.

“But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out.”  The child is not quite ready to walk, to put faith in its ability or in its mother’s plan, and so it cries out.  The ancient Jews did not, as a rule, believe in ghosts.  The idea of the ghosts of the dead walking among us, especially at night, comes from the Greeks, whose culture came to Galilee beginning with Alexander the Great.  Several of the Apostles had Greek names and also spoke Greek, for trading purposes.  Their belief that the figure of the Lord was a ghost tells us how shocked, even panic-stricken, they were at the sight: “They had all seen him and were terrified.”  

“But at once he spoke with them, “Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!” Through the deepest darkness of our night in this world, through the tumult of the winds of temptation, persecution, and fallen human nature, the Lord cries out to us, “Take courage, it is I!  Do not be afraid!”  “He got into the boat with them and the wind died down.”  The Lord’s very presence in our lives consoles us and strengthens us against evil.  Or, the winds may still rage, but we do not feel its affects because of the gift of faith the Lord gives to us. “They were completely astounded.”  They were stunned by the Lord walking on the water, and by the suddenness of the calm.  “They had not understood the incident of the loaves.”  The connection between the feeding of the people and the walking on the water seems abrupt, even forced, the way Mark writes.  St. Matthew, in his account of this event, tells how the Lord rebuked them for their lack of understanding.  What had they not understood?  In the feeding, Jesus multiplied more than enough food for everyone to get enough.  In fact, there was an enormous amount of food left over.  When Jesus gets into the boat, he did not help them to row, he calmed the sea and the boat reached land right away.  Jesus gives not merely sufficiently but overabundantly.  He shows overwhelming mercy: “pressed down and shaken together and running over” (Luke 6, 38).  It is a preparation for his Death on the Cross, when any little suffering he experienced would have more than made up for the sins of the world.  He does this to show us how much he loves us.

“Their hearts were hardened.”  That is, they lacked the capacity to understand what he had done, but not through ill-will.  Their faith and understanding would grow in time until they were able to show the Lord how much they loved him by laying down their lives for him.

Tuesday after Epiphany, January 7, 2025

Mark 6, 34-44

When Jesus saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. By now it was already late and his disciples approached him and said, “This is a deserted place and it is already very late. Dismiss them so that they can go to the surrounding farms and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” He said to them in reply, “Give them some food yourselves.” But they said to him, “Are we to buy two hundred days’ wages worth of food and give it to them to eat?” He asked them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out they said, “Five loaves and two fish.” So he gave orders to have them sit down in groups on the green grass. The people took their places in rows by hundreds and by fifties. Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; he also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied. And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments and what was left of the fish. Those who ate of the loaves were five thousand men.

“When Jesus saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them.” The latter part of the translation of this verse stands in contrast with a literal translation from the Greek text: “He pitied them.” Mark avoids sentimentality by writing in this direct way, but his style also reflects the urgency of his text. He does not waste words but describes things very sharply so that he can move on with what happens next. His pace is breathless. We might think of a student making rapid notes of everything his teacher says, so as to lose nothing, during a lecture.  This results in a rugged text that conveys the hard-nosed personality of a fisherman who goes right to the facts.

So: When Jesus saw the great (not “vast”) crowd, he pitied them “for they were like sheep without a shepherd.” That is, wandering about the countryside, scattered, and in danger from wolves. They have been abandoned. They do not have the ability to help or defend themselves. Jesus sees all these people who have heard of his coming and who had rushed out of their towns and villages in order to see him. They are spread out across the landscape not knowing exactly where his boat will land, and then hurry towards him when he disembarks. Their rabbis, Pharisees, and priests see them as creatures to be sheared for their own profit and otherwise have no real interest in them. They come to Jesus even without knowing what they want from him. But Jesus knows their hearts and how they yearn to learn the truth about God and his kingdom. And so, “he teaches them many things.” Before coming here, he had said to his exhausted Apostles, “Come apart into a deserted place, and rest a little.” But love works even when it is resting.

The Lord Jesus does not only teach them out of his compassion, but he cares for their physical health. He determines to feed them, and he means to put his Apostles to work in this task. He first has them come to the knowledge that they themselves have almost nothing, and then he takes what they have and multiplies it so that a super-abundance of food results. And this he bids his Apostles feed the people. Later, the Lord will remind them, “Without me, you can do nothing” (John 15, 5), and their minds will go back to this moment.

“And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments and what was left of the fish.” This is enough to satisfy another crowd. The Lord here shows that he does not give what is merely sufficient but always gives far more than what is strictly necessary. He does this to that his power serves his boundless compassion. 

Monday after Epiphany, January 5, 2025

Matthew 4:12-17, 23-25

When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled: “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen.”  From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people. His fame spread to all of Syria, and they brought to him all who were sick with various diseases and racked with pain, those who were possessed, lunatics, and paralytics, and he cured them. And great crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan followed him.

As St. Matthew tells it, the Lord Jesus began his ministry only after hearing that John the Baptist had been arrested.  This was his impression as one of the last called of the Apostles.  John the Apostle, who was with both Jesus and John the Baptist, remembered a brief period in which their ministries overlapped.  In his Gospel, he noted that at a time before John the Baptist was arrested, some of his disciples said to him, “Rabbi, he that was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you gave testimony: behold, he baptizes and all men come to him” (John 3, 26).  It would seem that while Jesus had begun his preaching ministry, it was limited in scope until the arrest of John the Baptist, and with the exception of the miracle at the wedding in Cana, he was not yet performing miracles, at least in the open. 

“The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen.”  Isaiah was foreseeing two events, here.  The first involved the return of northern Israel to Judaism.  After the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom of Israel, they largely depopulated the land, driving most of its inhabitants into exile.  They brought in Gentiles from other lands they had conquered to live there, and some of those who lived north of Israel eventually migrated down.  Not until a few hundred years later did the Jews in the south attempt to make the land Jewish again, and they did this through resettling it, but also by converting those already living there.  And so, for the people in the northern part of Israel, “a great light” dawned — they became children of the Covenant.  Secondly, this prophecy refers to the Lord, who was born to a family descended from migrants from the south.  These Jews were always looked upon by the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem as somehow second class, even as outsiders.  This explains some of their initial hostility to the Lord.  They did not enjoy criticism or a potential challenge to their power from anyone, let alone from a Jew who came from outside Judea, with his odd clothing and accent, his lack of scholarly education, and his suspect orthodoxy in matters of religion.  

The Lord’s message was a simple one: “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  According to the Greek, this should read, “for the Kingdom of heaven has drawn near” or “has approached”.  The Kingdom has come to the people, for without grace they cannot come to it.  God so desires the human race to fill the everlasting hills (cf. Genesis 49, 26) with his loved ones that he comes down to us.  The condition for entering the Kingdom is repentance: sincere contrition for sin, the resolution never to sin again in any way, and the desire to make up for these sins — to make restitution and to do penance.  This making restitution is no small thing, to be put off as long as possible since it is inconvenient and humiliating, for it is when Zacchaeus the tax collector tells the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have wronged any man of any thing, I restore him fourfold” (Luke 19, 8), that Jesus says to him, “Salvation has come to this house.”

“He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.”  Matthew summarizes the Lord’s public life in this way.  He emphasizes that his preaching and miracles occurred in Galilee, not in Judea (with significant exceptions).  He proclaimed “the Gospel of the Kingdom” like a herald sent by a king to announce a new law or a royal wedding to all the towns in his domain.  And, in fact, this is what the Lord does: he announces the new Law of love, and the coming Nuptials between himself and his Church (cf. Revelation 21, 2).  And this Herald has been given the authority (cf. Matthew 28, 18) to enact the new Law and to contract the Nuptials, which he does on the Cross.

Matthew tells us that the Lord cured “every disease and illness” and healed those “racked with pain”.  This reminds us of the seriousness of sin, much worse than a physical ailment or injury, and also of how Jesus can forgive every kind of sin.  “Great crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan followed him.”  They followed him, hungry for his teaching, and for hearing about the Kingdom of heaven.  We note that all these people “followed” him.  They did not try to lead him to where they wanted him to go, they did not put words into his mouth.  They submitted to his words and did the hard work of following him wherever he went.  

The Feast of the Epiphany, Sunday, January 4, 2026

Matthew 2, 1–12

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.” When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it has been written through the prophet: And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; since from you shall come a ruler, who is to shepherd my people Israel.”  Then Herod called the magi secretly and ascertained from them the time of the star’s appearance. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search diligently for the child. When you have found him, bring me word, that I too may go and do him homage.” After their audience with the king they set out. And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was. They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his Mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way.

The word Epiphany comes from a Greek word for “appearance” or “manifestation”, and the Feast of the Epiphany celebrates three such manifestations of the Son of God to the world.  Primarily, it celebrates the visitation of the Magi to the Infant Jesus, but it also commemorates his baptism by John in the Jordan, traditionally said to have taken place that day, thirty years later, and also the Lord’s first miracle, at the wedding at Cana, said to have taken place on the same day a year after his baptism.  The Universal Calendar gives the ancient date for this feast as on January 6, but the U.S. bishops have moved it to the first Sunday after January 1. 

“Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is the newborn king of the Jews?’ ”  The magi (from the Greek magoi, meaning “learned men”, “astrologers”, or “magicians”) came from “the east”.  Some say that these men originated in Persia, but they may have come from a nearer location, perhaps Arabia.  “We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.”  Now, it does seem odd that these Magi would leave their homeland and follow this star (for it “preceded” them), but the ancient people commonly believed that portents in the heavens indicated some significant event on the earth.  The “star” that they saw must have had a low altitude if they were able to follow it and stand beneath it.  It must also have stood out in size or in some other way from the others, as well.  Certainly, it seemed to move, but it could not have moved too quickly or it would have vanished over the horizon.  If it moved too slowly, it would have been too difficult to follow.  The appearance of the star could not have been caused by a planet or a conjunction of planets.  The ancients knew their planets very well and would not have confused this with a star, particularly as they could have watched the planets near each other over the course of several nights.  The Magi associated this sign in the heavens as indicating the birth of a king, and this was logical since it was a new star that had not been seen before.  Seeing it move with some speed, they decided to move with it, as this was an unheard of phenomenon, meaning something of very great importance had occurred.  It seemed to stop over Jerusalem, and so they assumed that this meant the new king had been born there.  Perhaps they did not know that Herod the Great still reigned in Judea.  Their question would certainly have stirred up Herod’s fear of being overthrown.

“Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.”. It is notable that Herod seems at once to have identified this newborn Child as the Messiah.  The expectation of the Messiah was evidently quite high at the time.  Non-biblical Jewish  writings like the Book of Enoch fed a populace hungry for hope that a new age of freedom for God’s people was imminent, and various short-lived messianic movements erupted here and there in the countryside, but they did not last (cf. Acts 5, 36-37).  The high priests referred Herod to Micah 5, 2, which is a relatively obscure passage in the work of one of the minor prophets.  This tells us of how ardently the high priests and the scribes themselves had searched the Scriptures for information about the Messiah who was to come — not unlike, in our own day, how some folks search the pages of the Bible for information about the identity and signs of the Antichrist, and for the date of the end of the world.  

“Then Herod called the Magi secretly and ascertained from them the time of the star’s appearance.”  Herod wanted to know when the star first became visible, which would tell him the age of the Child.  At this point, Jesus would have been no more than two weeks old.  “He sent them to Bethlehem and said, ‘Go and search diligently for the child. When you have found him, bring me word, that I too may go and do him homage.’ ”  Jesus would later refer to Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great and the ruler of Galilee at the time of the Lord’s ministry, as a “fox”, and here we see the father of the “fox” at work, as Herod the Great intends to let the Magi do the hard work of finding the Child, and then killing him when they reported back to him.  Herod speaks to them “secretly” out of fear that some of those at his court might see this as a chance to plot against him.  Note that Herod does not offer to go with the Magi: he wants to seem uninterested in the Child and unconnected with the massacre he is planning, lest that bring about a rebellion.  “And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.  They were overjoyed at seeing the star.”  Again, the mysterious star, which some of the Fathers believed to have been an angel guiding the Magi.

“On entering the house they saw the child with Mary his Mother.”  Luke does not say that Joseph was present or absent, but merely mentions that the Magi saw Mary and Jesus when they entered the house.  We see here that the Holy Family is now residing in a house, two weeks after the birth of Jesus.  They have prevailed on someone, perhaps a distant relative, to let them stay at this house.  The houses in Bethlehem were not very spacious or fancy.  Working people and their children dwelt in them.  They would have been built of stone and may have included small, walled courtyards.  The Magi must have been taken aback at the idea of a king being born here.  The star is described as “stopped over the place where the child was.”  Again, this indicates its relatively low altitude.  What did they see when they looked at Mary and Jesus?  There would have been no signs of royalty such as they were used to.  They saw a woman with her infant, an everyday sight.  And yet they saw more than that: “They prostrated themselves and did him homage.”  The prostration was an especial sign of obeisance in the East at that time.  But why did these educated, wealthy men fall on the floor before a mere woman and her child, foreigners to them?  Because they understood the significance of their star, a new star announcing the birth of a king, but also a miraculous star that filled them with joy when they looked upon it.  If the star was a wonder, then how much greater the One whom it signified and pointed out.

“Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”  The fact that three distinct gifts are listed has caused generations of believers to think that there were only three Magi, but we do not know their number.  Traditionally they are also thought of as kings, due to Psalm 72, 10: “The kings of Tharsis and the islands shall offer presents: the kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring gifts.”  The Fathers saw prophetic meaning in the types of the gifts they brought to the Lord Jesus: gold for a King; frankincense for a Priest; and myrrh for a Sacrificial Victim.  St. Thomas Aquinas also mentions that “some commenters assign a literal reason for these gifts.  These say that the Magi found a dirty house, a weak child, and a poor mother.  They offered the gold to sustain the mother, myrrh to strengthen the limbs of the child, and frankincense to take away the stench.”

“And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way.”  St. John Chrysostom, fourth century Patriarch of Constantinople, wrote that the Magi lived into the time of the Apostles and that they assisted St. Thomas when he began his work in Persia.  Their relics are housed in the the magnificent cathedral of Cologne, Germany.

So few people followed the star to its destination, and yet it must have been very visible and highly unusual.  All of Jerusalem, including the high priests, awaited the Messiah, and yet none of them accompanied the Magi to see him.  These days, the Faith is spread throughout the world, and Bibles are easily available, but how many people actually believe, how many folks read the Holy Scriptures?  Let us follow the star — the words and deeds of the Lord Jesus.  And let us ourselves become stars to lead others to him.

The Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, Saturday, January 3, 2026

John 1, 29–34

John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He is the one of whom I said, ‘A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.’ I did not know him, but the reason why I came baptizing with water was that he might be made known to Israel.” John testified further, saying, “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and remain upon him. I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.”

At the time the Lord Jesus walked the earth, John the Baptist alone fully understood that the Messiah promised by God through the Prophets would take away the sins of the world, dying a sacrificial death.  The Pharisees and the rabbis of the time did not understand this.  For them, the Messiah would free Jerusalem from the Romans and rule as the new King of Israel.  The Holy Spirit revealed this to John because John was fully open to the will of God.  The others had locked themselves in their fantasies.  When John declared, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”, he was using a term not found in the Scriptures.  The term might have been understood as a lamb destined for sacrifice in the Temple, but to call it “the Lamb of God” would have sounded ridiculous.  It singles out a particular lamb for special notice while large numbers of sheep were sacrificed every day.  It made far less sense to speak of a man in this way.  The use of the phrase would certainly have caused people to stop what they were doing and listen to John to see what he meant by this novel combination of words.

First, John was designating a particular individual within his sight.  Second, he explained that it was of this man that he had spoken earlier: “A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.”  Now, we should keep in mind that Jesus was at that moment standing in the crowd or just on its fringe.  John proclaims, “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and remain upon him.”  John here gives us his own description of the Baptism of the Lord.  It is from his words that we learn for certain that he, and not Jesus alone, saw the Holy Spirit descend upon him.  John would have proclaimed this to the crowd after watching in wonder as Jesus climbed out of the river onto the shore and disappeared into the crowd of people also seeking baptism.  Marveling at what had happened — the appearance of the Lord, his words, and the descent of the Holy Spirit — left John struggling for words.  “I did not know him.”  The Greek gives the sense of, I did not know that this was him.  Thus is fulfilled Isaiah 53, 2: “He had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.”  The Son of God makes himself so much like us that he has no distinguishing features.  He looks just like us.  This “lamb” looks like every other lamb.  Only the revelation by  “the one who sent me to baptize with water” identified him both as the One who was to come after him, and that he was the Lamb of God.  Further inspired by the Holy Spirit, John confesses, “Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.”

We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God through the gift of Faith given us by the Holy Spirit.  For so many people, he is no one, of no account.  In today’s society, he is hardly known at all.  He is just a meaningless face in the crowd, one lamb among thousands in a pasture.  Through the Holy Spirit, you and I are John the Baptist, pointing to him with our words and deeds.

The Second Monday after Christmas, January 2, 2025

John 1, 19-28

This is the testimony of John. When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to him to ask him, “Who are you?” He admitted and did not deny it, but admitted, “I am not the Christ.” So they asked him, “What are you then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us? What do you have to say for yourself?” He said: “I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.” Some Pharisees were also sent. They asked him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ or Elijah or the Prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water; but there is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.” This happened in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

As in St. Matthew’s Gospel, St. John’s begins with opposition: Matthew’s, with Herod’s attempt to kill the newborn King of the Jews, and John’s, with the priests and Levites sent out from Jerusalem to interrogate John the Baptist.  Both Matthew and John wrote their Gospels for Jewish Christians while St. Mark and St. Luke wrote primarily for Greek Christians.  The authors of the Gospels for Jewish Christians wrote for an audience many of whom knew first hand of the opposition of the Jewish leaders to the Lord Jesus and were themselves suffering from their persecution.  These Gospels were written to encourage the faithful suffering from them, reminding them of how the Lord had charged them, “Remember my word that I said to you: The servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15, 20).

“Who are you?”  No one like John the Baptist had ever arisen in Israel.  He lived in the way of some of the old prophets, especially Elijah, but unlike Elijah he performed no miracles and remained in the same region.  His baptized, which none of the prophets had done, and he preached repentance.  The Jewish leaders felt apprehensive about him but did not know what to make of him.  He made no claims about himself, did not go into the cities, and seemed content to live as an outsider.  But when someone has usurped power and holds it illegitimately, everyone is a potential threat, especially if they draw crowds.  And the chief priests had gotten their positions through paying the Romans, and the Pharisees, out of pride, had set themselves up as teachers, though unauthorized to do so.  John answers their question denying that he was the Messiah or Elijah come back down from heaven, and saying very simply, “I am the voice of one crying out in the desert.”  In short, he did not seek to overthrow the established authorities, legitimate or not.  For this reason, the chief priests left him alone.  But the Pharisees acted with greater persistence.  They did this because they felt threatened by John as a teacher, but also because evil is curious.  Evil is baffled by charity that seeks no reward and selfless love.  It does not make any sense to those who are evil.  They ask, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ or Elijah or the Prophet?”  It is a curious question because nothing in the Scriptures indicated that Elijah or the Messiah would baptize, and yet the Pharisees tie baptism to these figures.  Perhaps this was one of their interpretations of the Law, as false as that Jews needed to wash several times a day as the priests had to do in the Temple. 

“I baptize with water; but there is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.”  Here John ties his ministry of baptism to the Messiah, whom John neither names nor actually calls “messiah”.  The power of John’s statement depends on the knowledge he has of his reputation.  He knows that the crowds consider him to be a great man, and he himself is conscious of his call by Almighty God, and so can speak of one who is greater than he, knowing that this will make an impression on the Pharisees.  John emphasizes the greatness of this other by telling the Pharisees that he is not worthy to be this man’s lowest slave.  And yet, for all that, this man is not recognized: he is among them, but not known to them.  John knows him because God has revealed him to him, but the Pharisees do not because they have received no such revelation.  They do not receive it because they are not doing the work of God, as John is, and their faith is weak, appearances to the contrary.

“This happened in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.”  St. John, writing his Gospel years later, knows where these conversations took place because he was there.  As a very young man he followed John the Baptist before he followed Jesus.  John even tells us on what side of the Jordan John was baptizing, for “Bethany across the Jordan” was situated on its eastern bank.  This is the first of several occasions when John will precisely locate the events he describes, pointing over and over to the reality that the Son of God had indeed assumed a human nature and walked upon the earth where he could be seen, heard, and touched.