Homily for Thursday after Epiphany
Jan.
8, 2026
Collect
1
John 4: 19—5:4
Christian
Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.
“Eternal
light, full splendor, radiance, everlasting glory” (Collect).
Christ, Light of the World
(USCCB headquarters, Washington)
There’s
a theme running thru today’s collect.
God’s eternal radiance, the splendor of divinity, has entered the world
and transformed our humble condition.
The Son made flesh bathes us in his radiance and calls us to share his
glory. The reference to bathing suggests
the coming feast of the Lord’s baptism and our sharing in it.
Led
by the Spirit, Christ appears in Galilee and begins to teach (Luke 4:14-15). He announces salvation and liberation (4:18-19). He begins the restoration of humanity’s good
standing before God (4:21).
St.
John writes that God “first loved us” (1 John 4:19. God takes the initiative by sending “Jesus in
the power of the Spirit” (Luke 4:14) to pour that same power out on us, “the
full splendor of [our] Redeemer” (collect)—poured out in the waters of Baptism
and in the sacrament of Reconciliation.
In
the power of that Spirit, following God’s initiative in loving us, we respond
with love for him and for our brothers and sisters (1 John 4:20-21). Doing so, we radiate God’s goodness, show
Jesus to the world as its “eternal light,” and are led to “everlasting glory”
(collect). Christ as “eternal light for
all nations” (collect) recalls the title of Vatican II’s most fundamental
teaching, Lumen gentium. Our love
for the children whom God has begotten (1 John 5:1-2) radiates that light
(collect) and wins a share in Christ’s victory (5:4-5).
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