We heard the beginning of John’s Gospel today. Mark begins his Gospel with Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist. Matthew and Luke go back earlier and begin their Gospels with the angel Gabriel announcing the birth of Jesus. John’s Gospel, as we just heard, takes us back to the beginning of time.
In the beginning was the Word,
and the
Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
From the very beginning, Jesus, the Word, was with the Father. He became one of us, took our flesh, but from the very beginning Jesus was with the Father. There really was no beginning because there never was a time when Jesus was not with the Father—it is too much for our minds to understand.
John spent three years with Jesus and as a result he was absolutely convinced that the only way to live is with Jesus in our lives and as Jesus taught us. Why wouldn’t he? He met Jesus after his resurrection many times. So, John described Jesus as the true light that enlightens everyone (1:9). However, John had the great sadness of seeing most of his own Jewish people not accepting Jesus. As we heard in the Gospel today:
He came to what was his own,
but his
own people did not accept him.
But to those who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God. (John 1:11-12)
So, John wrote his Gospel to try to convince people that Jesus was the Messiah and they need him in their lives. Near the end of his Gospel, John explained:
Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name. (John 20:30-31)
John knew that living one’s life with Jesus at the center gives a joy that you cannot have any other way. He gives us these words of Jesus: I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. (John 15:11) John wanted everyone to have that joy so he wrote his Gospel to encourage people to get to know Jesus.
John’s Gospel is like a spiritual program or curriculum telling us how to grow spiritually. John tells us that the first thing to do in our relationship with Jesus is to get baptized. He tells us about Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus when Jesus said to Nicodemus, “I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” (3:5)
Baptism is only the beginning of our journey to the kingdom. Jesus said a crucial part of our journey to the kingdom is the Eucharist. So, in chapter 6, John gives us these words of Jesus: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.” (John 6:53-54) So, according to Jesus, without the Eucharist, there is some spiritual death in us.
On our journey to the kingdom, how we treat others is obviously very important. Jesus said, “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another” (John 13:34) and “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you” (John 15:12) and doing so makes us friends of Jesus: “You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:14)
As we go through life, we could become contaminated by false thinking around us. A large part of the New Testament letters was trying to help people purify their thinking because their thinking had been corrupted— either they were living just the part of the Gospel that suited them, or they were not accepting Jesus as the only way to salvation. So, spiritual cleansing is necessary—learning again to look at life and the world the way Jesus taught us. Near the beginning of his public ministry, we see Jesus doing very dramatic cleansing as he drove the money changers out of the temple (John 2:13-22). That was only the beginning of much cleansing in the Gospel of John. Jesus said to the sinner woman, “Go and from now on do not sin any more.” (John 8:11) Jesus described us as branches on him, the vine, being pruned by our heavenly Father. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.” (John 15:1-2) So, John tells us, what is not leading us to the kingdom of God needs to be pruned. Cleansing and pruning lead naturally to confessing sin so Jesus gave the apostles the authority to forgive sins in his name: Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained. (John 20:22–23).
When Jesus was dying on the cross, he gave his mother Mary to us as our spiritual mother when he said to John, “Behold your Mother” and he said to her, “Behold your son.” Jesus was not just asking John to look after Our Lady after he was gone; Jesus was giving his mother Mary to us as our spiritual mother. She is our spiritual mother watching over us from heaven, protecting us, caring for us, and loving us.
For someone who has faith and living with Jesus in their lives always, our passing from this life to the next is only a little blip because before Jesus raised Lazarus John reports Jesus saying, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26)
John was absolutely convinced that the only way to live is with Jesus in our lives and as Jesus taught us, so he wrote his Gospel to try to convince us. John’s Gospel is like a spiritual program or curriculum telling us how to grow spiritually, to try to convince us that Jesus is the true light that enlightens everyone.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2026
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Second Sunday after Christmas
In the beginning 2025
Taking Jesus home 2020
Now I know why you had to do it: a Christmas Parable
God does care about you: the Word became flesh and lived among us
Who are you? 2021
Second Reading: see Chosen by God
Enlightened to our calling and destiny
stories for Christmas