Testify | January 8

Click here to read the daily readings from the USCCB website.

Is it just me, or is St. John just saying the same thing in different ways in each of the first readings this week? In some ways... I feel like he is. But today also had a unique addition!

Today John spends a lot of time talking about testimony. Humans can testify to what God has done for us, but John says greater still is God's own testimony:

"And this is the testimony:
God gave us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son.
Whosever possesses the Son has life; 
whoever does not possess the Son of God does not have life."

This is the same testimony that John gives through his entire first epistle. John experienced God's testimony and then was able to live it out himself. John lived and spoke and wrote so as to bear witness to Jesus, to the Gospel, in everything he did. He couldn't help himself!

The leper of today's Gospel has a similar story. After experiencing the miraculous healing from Jesus, he couldn't help but testify to Jesus's power and God's goodness!

This shouldn't be a unique incident. This isn't reserved for Bible times. We also need to know what to say to bear witness to the Lord. How has He encountered us? What has He done for us? By our testimony, others might come to seek the Father too and the Holy Spirit with convict that person of the truth! We're just asked to play our part.