A Homily for Friday after Epiphany
Friday, January 10, 2025
Prince of Peace Catholic Church – 8:00 Mass
1 John 5:5-13; Psalm 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20; Luke 5:12-16
Audio Recording
This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by water alone, but by water and blood. The Spirit is the one that testifies, and the Spirit is truth. So there are three that testify, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and the three are of one accord.
I’d like to speak today about our first reading from 1 John. John is concerned in today’s passage with our belief in Jesus Christ as the true Son of God. He speaks of three witnesses to this truth, The Spirit, the water and the blood. These three witnesses are intended to strengthen and confirm our belief in Jesus. Witnesses were very important under the law of Moses, which required two or three witnesses to establish the truth of any given matter. John is emphasizing the truth of Christ’s human and divine nature by emphasizing that there are three key witnesses to this truth.
Let’s take a closer look at what John is telling us about each of these “witnesses.”
Scholars believe that by identifying water and blood as witnesses to Christ’s divine sonship, he’s referring to the beginning and the end of his earthly ministry. The water signifies his baptism, when he began his public ministry, and the blood refers to his crucifixion, when he died for our sins so that we might share in his divine life.
John then continues by speaking of a third witness to Christ’s divinity and his work of salvation, the Spirit. Of course he’s speaking of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity. The Spirit testifies to Jesus as the Son of God at his baptism by visibly descending upon him and remaining with him. The Spirit is also the one who gives testimony to Jesus among the disciples, who visibly descended upon them at Pentecost and guided them into all truth. The Holy Spirit “testifies” to us about Christ by making the redemptive power of his work present in OUR lives.
While we are all very familiar with the witness of water, present to us in the sacrament of Baptism, and the witness of blood, present in the Eucharist, many Catholics are less familiar with the third witness, the Holy Spirit, who comes to us even more fully in the sacrament of Confirmation. Oh sure, we talk about the Spirit and understand that he is the third person of the Holy Trinity. We even speak of him in the Creed. But are we really familiar with the Spirit and the truth that it is the Holy Spirit who is the person of God who is at work in the world today?
Back in the 70’s, a movement became quite popular in the Church called the Charismatic Renewal. The purpose of this movement was to provide more emphasis on the movement of the Holy Spirit within the Church and to encourage God’s people be “baptized in the Spirit.” While many objected, thinking the leaders of this movement were trying to somehow create a new sacrament of confirmation, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
What the Renewal was really emphasizing was the need for us to have a personal experience of a deeper awareness of the power of the Holy Spirit, described as a life-transforming moment where one feels a renewed presence of God and is empowered to use their spiritual gifts more fully. The real message of the Renewal was the intensified grace we can receive by actively experiencing the Holy Spirit’s gifts in our life.
While we don’t have the time today to go more deeply into this topic, I simply want to encourage you to be more aware of the Holy Spirit’s presence in your life and to consider praying to him to help you in times of need. The Holy Spirit, the third witness to us that Jesus is truly the Son of God, is a powerful source of grace and consolation who we often forget about in our daily lives.
A simple prayer to ask the Holy Spirit to be present to us is very much like the simple Jesus prayer. I encourage you to pray this prayer often by simply reciting, “Come, Holy Spirit” over and over again in your times of need or to settle you as you begin your time of daily prayer.
You’ll be amazed at the peace God offers us through the Spirit, the same peace our Lord surely experienced when he would withdraw to deserted places to pray, as we read in the last line of today’s gospel passage.
We know that Jesus drew his power from the Spirit, the Holy Spirit who descended upon him at his baptism in the Jordan. We, too, have access to that same Spirit, that same power, by virtue of our Baptism and Confirmation. Thanks be to God!
May the Holy Spirit, the third witness to the truth that Jesus is the Son of God, descend upon each of us today and fill us with his peace and his power.
Pray with me now…”Come, Holy Spirit”…
God bless you.