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Memorial of St. Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Dr.’s of the
church.
1 John 2:22-28
Psalm 98:1, 2-3AB, 3CD-4
John1:19-28
Summary
John’s purpose in writing the Gospel of John is “that you may believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his
name” (John 20:31).This theme crescendos in all of today’s readings. In I John
2:22-28, the author declares whoever denies that Jesus is
the
Christ denies
the
Father and
the
Son.The author goes on to say “the anointing received from Je-
sus, that is grace and new life of the Spirit, exists in you”. In other words, the
Holy Spirit lives within you. Psalm 98 tells us that “the Lord has made his salva-
tion known: in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice; and all the
ends of the earth have seen the salvation by our God.”
Reflection
In John’s gospel we have the testimony of John the Baptist (not the author of
this gospel). The term Jews has a geographic tone to it and is sometimes trans-
lated “Judeans”. The author John is not speaking derogatorily about ethnic
Jews. Jesus was a Jew and so was his mother, Mary. In this passage, geography
plays a figurative role.The northern regions of Samaria and Galilee accepted Je-
sus in faith, but the southern region of Judea, especially Jerusalem, were hostile
towards Jesus. Jesus met enormous opposition from the Judeans, particularly its
leaders.
In John 1:19 we read that the Judean priests and Levites question John the Bap-
tist by asking “Who
are
you?”. Are you the Christ (or the Messiah; read Mk 14)?
Elijah? John is not Elijah come again, but he fulfills his mission in spirit (Mal
4:5; Lk 1:17).
The prophet
? Israel expected a prophet in the image of Moses. The
authorities interrogate John the Baptist by asking him if he’s
THE
Prophet, not
just
a
prophet (Duet 18:15-19).
John the Baptist announces “No. I am the voice of one crying in the wilder-
ness” (Is 40:3). He then says “I baptize with water; but among you stands one
whom you do not know, even one who comes after me, the thong of whose san-
dal I am not worthy to untie.” The water baptism of John the Baptist is a sign of