Friday
after the Epiphany
January 9, 2015 8:30am
Our first readings this week are
from the First Letter of Saint John.
I have to imagine that the Church
selected these passages for this week because they are a kind of meditation on
the Incarnation.
Today Saint John starts by
reflecting on Jesus’ identity.
He says that there are three who
testify to him: 1) the Spirit, 2) the water, and 3) the Blood.
1) The Spirit refers to Jesus’
baptism, which we celebrate this coming Sunday.
That gospel tells us that the
heavens opened and the Spirit descended and came upon Him.
So the Spirit testifies to Jesus
as divine.
As the voice from the heavens
says at his baptism, “This is my beloved
Son.”
2) And then the water testifies
to Jesus’ humanity.
He so wanted to identify with us
that he even submitted himself to the water of baptism.
He was fully human.
3) And third, the Blood refers to
Jesus’ death.
He shed his Blood for us on the
cross and gave his life for us.
And in giving his life for us, he
actually gave his own life to us.
This is why, after saying that the
Spirit, the water, and the Blood testify to Jesus, to his identity, John talks
about eternal life.
Eternal life is the life of God.
Jesus’ taking on our humanity has
so transformed our nature that we now share God’s life – eternal life.
Our faith in this and our living
out of that faith makes God’s life come more and more alive in us now and will eventually
lead us to full life with God.
That is the wonderful meditation
on the richness of the Incarnation and the identity of Jesus that Saint John
gives us this morning.
