Homily for the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 18th, 2026

Biblical scholars tell us that for Orientals, eyewitnesses had to report much more than simply what they saw about an event or a person.  They were expected not to be objective (the way we westerners are required to be) but rather partial to, and report also how they felt about someone and how that person affected their life.  

All three readings offer us images of genuinely oriental, passionate witnessing at high personal cost.   

And this ancient oriental fashion of bearing witness, with passion and abandonment, continued in the early Church and into the present.  

The Church has always been counting on the bold witnessing of those who, willingly, pay the ultimate price for Christ and his Gospel. She lavished, and still lavishes, her greatest honors on martyrs (Greek for witnesses).   

The image of the servant introduced by the 1st reading (Isaiah 49:3, 5-6) is an unconventional type of martyrdom. By being willing to dedicate oneself, one’s hopes, one’s values, one’s time to God and to his cause, one becomes a valuable witness, a light to the nations, so that God’s salvation and love may reach to the ends of the earth.   

The 2nd reading (1 Corinthians 1:1-3) shows how Paul feels called to be a specific type of witness, an apostle, one who preaches with the eloquence and the fire of his life and words even under adverse conditions. 

While he sees himself as being such a witness, Paul greets everyone in the Church of Corinth because they, too, are called to bear witness to Christ by the holiness of their conduct. 

Yet John the Baptist remains the most vivid image of a witness oriental style. (John 1:29-34) 

He came to bear witness to the light, i.e. to the truth who is Christ. (cf. John 1:7) 

He directs his disciples’ attention onto Jesus as the unblemished Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world of darkness and moral decay.  

He firmly testifies to Jesus’ holiness because he saw the Spirit of God descend upon him like a dove.  

Finally, John is so taken by his mission of bearing witness to the light that, with his voice, he reproduces the Father’s voice from heaven stating boldly the divinity of his Son, Jesus. (John 1:34) 

Before such a splendid throng of witnesses, we must rediscover our mission in life; we glorify our Lord and Savior by bearing witness to him and to his light in a world shrouded by darkness, confusion and relativism. 

The present situation is such that our bearing witness to Christ and to his Gospel should be partisan, passionate, bold and given with abandonment.  

The most pressing area of our witnessing must remain the sacredness of each human life from conception to natural death.   

Similarly, to anyone suffering from gender dysphoria we should rush to stress the awesomeness of the human body the Lord assigns to each one of his children: You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. I praise you, so wonderfully you made me; wonderful are your works! Psalm 139:13-14 

By and large, we are all called to bear witness through our service of giving hope and restoring dignity.  Once healed by Christ, those among us who have felt lonely, humiliated, defeated, depressed, should feel called to remind more recent victims of such miseries that the Lord is Emanuel, God with us; that God became flesh; that he continues to experience all the pain and all the losses that we experience; that he will never fail to record a single tear, a single sigh, a single cry of ours. (cf. Psalm 56:9) 

In brief, we are called to remind others that Jesus is risen, and that he wishes all of us to share in his victory over all evils. 

This humble ministry doesn’t expect to be recognized, thanked, rewarded.  It is a bold way of witnessing to Jesus and to his Gospel, because it can be carried out only after we have acquired Christ’s attitude of considering others more important than ourselves and of having placed their wellbeing ahead of our own. 

Naturally, there are countless other ways we can serve others and bear witness to Christ and to his Gospel.  

Restored at the “Supper of the Lamb,” we shall feel inspired by his boundless love for us, and bear always witness to him with partisan, passionate abandonment.