January 2, 2026 // Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church
Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: John 1:19-28
Reflect on the Word //
I run up against it all the time: my desire for something more. I actually laugh a bit when I think of how I started out the year 2025 with a deep desire on my heart to go somewhere new, and how now— halfway across the country—I often want to go back. Somehow I am still surprised that nowhere is perfect, that nothing completely satisfies me.
Saint John the Baptist reminds me today, right alongside the people of his time, that the something more that I am looking for is already on its way.
“There is one among you who you do not recognize” (John 1:26). It seems as though that should fix everything. If the Messiah is in my midst—what more could I want? However, I still see people in pain, still see sin, still see darkness. I still want something different, something more.
But the verse continues: “There is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me” (John 1:26-27, emphasis mine). The One Who is greater than the prophets is still to come. The people whom John is addressing still haven’t met Him yet. It’s a strange both/and: the Messiah is here and He is also coming.
But this is the very promise of Christmas. Precisely because God has become Man to live with us and die for us, it is now possible for us to go to live with Him.
This is why He is still coming: first to draw our souls to Himself at our deaths and then to raise our bodies at the end of time. And meanwhile, He is coming to us each day in the Eucharist to encourage and console us on our way to Heaven. Because it is just as John tells us: the greatest things are still to come.
Relate to the Lord // How is your hope? Share it with Jesus and ask for an increase in the virtue of hope.
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