💖 HOMILY - DECEMBER 27 💖

First Reading - 1 John 1:1-4 

Gospel - John 20:2-8

At the heart of the Christian life is a simple but life-changing question: is our faith an idea we accept, or a life we have encountered? Today’s readings insist that faith begins not with theory or explanation, but with experience—with something seen, touched, and lived.

The First Reading from 1 John speaks with striking concreteness. The author, traditionally identified as John the Evangelist, does not describe an abstract belief system. He speaks of what was heard, what was seen with the eyes, what was looked upon and touched. Faith is rooted in encounter. Christianity is not built on rumors about God, but on relationship with the Word who entered real human life. And the purpose of sharing this experience is joy—joy that is complete because it is shared.

This theme of encounter continues in the Gospel from John. Peter and the beloved disciple run to the tomb, driven by confusion, grief, and hope struggling to survive. What they find is not immediate clarity, but signs: an empty tomb, folded burial cloths, absence instead of explanation. And yet, something decisive happens. The beloved disciple sees and believes. Faith is born not from seeing Jesus directly, but from recognizing that something new and irreversible has begun.

This moment is deeply relatable. Many of us want certainty before commitment. We want answers before trust. But the Gospel shows us a different path. Faith often begins when we step forward with incomplete understanding, when we allow signs—small but real—to speak to us. Belief does not erase questions; it reorients them.

What connects these readings is the movement from encounter to testimony. Those who have experienced life with Christ cannot keep it to themselves. Joy expands when it is shared. Faith matures when it is lived in community. Christianity has always spread not primarily through arguments, but through people whose lives have been changed.

This speaks directly to our own lives. We live in a world full of opinions about God, religion, and meaning. It is easy to treat faith as one option among many, something private or theoretical. Today’s word challenges us to ask: where have I encountered Christ in my own life? In forgiveness received, in hope restored, in love that surprised me, in strength I did not know I had?

The invitation today is not to have everything figured out, but to remain open to encounter. To run, like the disciples, even when understanding lags behind desire. To trust that God is at work even when all we see is an empty space where certainty once stood.

When faith becomes encounter, fear loosens its grip. When faith becomes shared joy, isolation fades. And when faith becomes lived experience, our lives themselves become testimony. What was seen, what was heard, what was touched—this is what continues to give life to the world.