Homily: Thursday after Epiphany 2016 - Light, Life, and Love

We have been reading, on these weekdays after the epiphany from the first letter of St. John.  Here is another one of those wonderful books of scripture we would all do well to read in its entirety in one sitting, like the original audience would have heard it. 

Although there were many early Christian leaders who bore the name John, major ancient authorities like Irenaeus, Clement, Origen, and Tertullian, were substantially unanimous in ascribing the authorship of this letter to the Beloved Disciple, the one who laid his head on the breast of Christ at the Last Supper, the one who stood at the cross with the Blessed Mother, John the Apostle. The high number of parallels and echoes between the language of this epistle and John’s Gospel adds further weight to this claim. 

The original audience of this letter was probably the Christian community in or around Ephesus, the city where John took the Blessed Mother into his care.  Nevertheless, this letter speaks to every Christian in every time and place.

The fundamental theme of John’s letter is what it means to have a relationship with God, to be in union with God, sharing God’s life through Jesus Christ.  John uses three terms to describe God and the life of God that Christians share through Christ: light, life, and love.  “If you love the Father, you are a child of the father” we heard today.  “God sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we might have life through him” we heard Tuesday.  Early in the letter he writes, “God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all… But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another.” 

Light, life, and love: these are the three things everyone in the world needs and wants more of.  There opposites, falsehood, death and hate, are the worst things in the world. Most everyone in the world wants to avoid these things, but not everyone knows how.  John tells us that Jesus is the answer to that question.  If you want the fulfillment of your deepest desires—deepen your relationship with Christ.  Love Him, Walk in his light, and you will share his life.

His commandments are not burdensome, John tells us today, for when we fellow His commandments, and walk by the light of his faith, his victory over falsehood, death, and hate will dwell within us; his victory will be our strength.

We continue our Christmas celebration of the birth of the savior, seeking to be liberated, delivered, and freed from all that keeps us from loving him as we should, walking in his light, and sharing his life, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.