Second Sunday after Christmas – Year A
January 4, 2026
Gospel Lectionary Text
John 1:(1-9), 10-18
1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
1:2 He was in the beginning with God.
1:3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being
1:4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
1:5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.
1:6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
1:7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.
1:8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.
1:9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
1:10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him.
1:11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.
1:12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God,
1:13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
1:14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.
1:15 (John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'")
1:16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
1:17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
1:18 No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.
Context
Welcome to the second week after Christmas. John’s Gospel arrived later than Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It was written around 90 A.D., which means John spent nearly sixty years undergoing the reality of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection before he ever put pen to papyrus.
And when John finally speaks, he frames the Gospel as the story of New Creation. He begins with a creative retelling of the opening lines of Genesis: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” It's as if he’s trying to say, what God began then has begun again.
But he doesn’t stop there. For John, Jesus is more than a part of the old story, he’s the means by which New Creation is happening in our midst now: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.” Confused?
Welcome to the Incarnation, the mystery of God’s creative Word made flesh. The word mystery comes from the Greek mystērion, which means “to shut one’s mouth.” Wise counsel when undergoing a mystery. John seems to have done just that. He dummied up for decades, letting the mystery form him from the inside out.
And when he finally breaks the silence, he does two strange things. First, he tells the Christmas story with Easter eyes. It is the resurrection that makes the Incarnation intelligible. Creator becomes creation in one great act of communion, freeing us up to participate in the ongoing act of Creation, which happens through the receiving and giving of forgiveness.
Second, he tells the story of New Creation as one who is being created. This is weird, because no one tells their own birth story. But this is exactly what John is doing. He is bearing witness to being born…again.
No wonder he sat quietly for 60 years.
Question
John frames Jesus as the beginning of New Creation. Where do you sense something new trying to be born in you or around you right now?
Reflections
Dwelling With Darkness
By Miriam Medina |
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.” This line gets quoted often, usually quickly and with confidence. As if darkness is a problem to be solved, and light is here to win. Admittedly, when I read this passage, I have to fight my initial instinct to villainize darkness. Throughout...
Born in Grace
By Joel Van Dyke |
At the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve, the night sky in Guatemala City explodes in bursts of color under the canopy of fireworks. Everyone heads outside into the streets to wish one another Feliz Navidad with hugs for neighbors, family, friends and strangers amidst columns of smoke and the barrage of bottle rockets.
Praying Eucharistically - Weekly Homily by James Alison:
Girardian Lectionary Weekly Reflection:
Understanding the Bible anew through the Mimetic Theory of René Girard.
Poetry
Everlasting Gospel
by William Blake
The vision of Christ that thou dost see
Is my vision's greatest enemy.
Thine has a great hook nose like thine;
Mine has a snub nose like to mine.
Thine is the Friend of all Mankind;
Mine speaks in parables to the blind.
Thine loves the same world that mine hates;
Thy heaven doors are my hell gates.
Socrates taught what Meletus
Loath‟d as a nation‟s bitterest curse,
And Caiaphas was in his own mind
A benefactor to mankind.
Both read the Bible day and night,
But thou read'st black where I read white.
Prayer
This week, the call to prayer comes from the Street Psalms Centering Prayer: Breathe God's Name
Breathe God's Name YHWH: "Yah” (inhale), “Weh" (exhale)
