2 January 2027 · Latin Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.”” John 1:26–27
The priests and Levites ask John the Baptist, “Who are you?” He answers first with what he is not: not the Messiah, not Elijah, not the prophet. Then he says who he is: “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness.” A voice exists for a word. John's whole identity is to point to another: “Among you stands one whom you do not know.” Humility is not thinking little of ourselves; it is knowing that our life is for Christ.
St John warns that whoever denies the Son does not have the Father, and urges: “Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you.” Today we honour two friends who defended that faith from the beginning: St Basil the Great and St Gregory Nazianzen, students together in Athens, monks together, then bishops in Cappadocia. Against the Arians they defended the full divinity of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; the Creed we say on Sundays owes much to them. Gregory wrote of their friendship: we knew only two roads, the one to the church and the one to the schools.
Theme: “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness.”
John points to Christ; Basil and Gregory defend the faith.
“A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”” Isaiah 40:3
“He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’” as the prophet Isaiah said.” John 1:23
Apply: Let one conversation today point to Christ.
“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Jeremiah 31:33
“Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father.” 1 John 2:24
Apply: Read one paragraph of the Creed in the Catechism this week.
“For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;” Proverbs 2:6
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30
Apply: Thank God for a friend who strengthens your faith.
We are voices; Christ is the Word.
Faithful to what we heard, humble like John.
Take-home resolution: Pray the Creed slowly each morning this week.
Dear friends, on the second day of the new year the Gospel asks a simple question: who are you? The priests and Levites come to John the Baptist and ask him this. John first says what he is not: I am not the Messiah, not Elijah, not the prophet (John 1:20–21).
Then he says who he is: I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord (John 1:23). A voice exists to carry a word. John knows that his whole life is to carry Christ to others. That is true humility: not hating ourselves, but knowing that we live for someone greater.
St John in the first reading tells us to let what we heard from the beginning abide in us (1 John 2:24). Many voices around us offer a new gospel. The Church asks us to stay with the faith of the Apostles.
Today we remember Saints Basil and Gregory, two friends from Cappadocia in present-day Turkey. They studied together in Athens, prayed together as monks, and became bishops. They defended the truth that Jesus is truly God and that the Holy Spirit is truly God. Gregory said that in Athens they knew only two roads: the road to church and the road to school.
Let us ask for John's humility and for holy friendships like theirs. Let our words and our lives say: not me, but Christ. Amen.
Children, John the Baptist said: I am only a voice; Jesus is the important one! Today let us help someone to know Jesus.
O God, who were pleased to give light to your Church by the example and teaching of the Bishops Saints Basil and Gregory, grant that in humility we may learn your truth and practise it faithfully in charity. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today's readings ask one question: who is Jesus? John's letter answers those who deny the Son, and the Baptist, asked who he is himself, points away to someone greater. Both ask us to hold on to what we have heard about Christ. It suits the memorial of two bishops who spent their lives defending that same faith.
Setting.
Tradition links the First Letter of John with the Apostle; many scholars think of a disciple in his circle, near the end of the first century. Its author does not name himself. A painful split lies behind it: some members have left the community (2:19), and their teaching about Jesus troubled those who remained. The writer does not call them by name. He reminds his readers of what they already know.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you.” (2:24)
The writer offers nothing new. In a time of confusion, the answer is to go back to the original preaching, the apostolic faith.
“the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and so you do not need anyone to teach you.” (2:27)
This does not reject teachers; the author himself is teaching them in this very letter. He is telling them that they need not follow new teachers who offer a higher knowledge, because the Spirit already leads them in the faith they have received.
“And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he is revealed we may have confidence” (2:28)
“Confidence” (parrēsia) is the openness of one who can speak freely, like a child with a parent. The word “coming” (parousia) appears only here in the writings of John.
How the Church reads it.
The Second Vatican Council cites this passage when it teaches that the whole body of the faithful, anointed by the Holy One, cannot err in matters of belief when it agrees from the bishops down to the last of the lay faithful (Lumen Gentium 12; compare CCC 91–92). The word “Christian” itself means “anointed” (CCC 1289). St Augustine, preaching on v. 27, says that the sound of his words reaches the ear, but the true teacher is within (in substance, Homilies on the First Letter of John 3).
Setting.
After the great Prologue, John's Gospel begins its story with a question. A delegation comes from Jerusalem to the Baptist. Here “the Jews” does not mean the Jewish people, to whom John the Baptist himself belonged. It means the religious authorities of Jerusalem, who had reason to ask about a new preacher drawing crowds. Theirs was a fair question.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.”” (1:20)
The Evangelist speaks of this with solemn words. In this Gospel, the Baptist's “I am not” stands in contrast with the “I am” sayings of Jesus. To confess, for John, is to say who he is not.
“I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,” (1:23)
He gives no title, only a task. His importance lies entirely in the one he announces.
“Among you stands one whom you do not know,” (1:26)
Even now, Christ can be near and go unrecognized. This remains a warning for those who know the Scriptures best, and so for us.
“I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.” (1:27)
It was the task of a slave. A later Jewish saying holds that a disciple may do all that a slave does for his master, except this. John ranks himself below that.
How the Church reads it.
St Augustine draws out the contrast: John is the voice, and Christ is the Word. The voice passes, and the Word remains (in substance). The Catechism calls John the “voice” of the Consoler who is coming (CCC 719) and the Lord's immediate forerunner (CCC 523). Every preacher, catechist and parent might learn from him how to speak of Christ and then step aside.
Why does John say he is not Elijah, when Jesus says that he is (Matthew 11:14)?
John denies that he is Elijah returned in person, which is what the question means. Jesus is speaking about John's role, and Luke says that he comes “with the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17). The two statements answer different questions.
St Basil (died 379), bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, and St Gregory of Nazianzus (died about 390) were friends from their student days in Athens. Gregory later said that they knew only two roads: the one to the church and the one to the schools (Oration 43). Both defended the faith of Nicaea, that the Son is truly God, in the very spirit of today's first reading. Basil also wrote a treatise on the Holy Spirit and founded a great complex to serve the poor and the sick at Caesarea. Gregory, called “the Theologian”, wrote that what Christ did not assume, he did not heal (Letter 101).