Daily Reading


Friday after Epiphany

LECTIONARY
216

FIRST READING
1 JN 5:5-13

Beloved:
Who indeed is the victor over the world
but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

This is the one who came through water and Blood, Jesus Christ,
not by water alone, but by water and Blood.
The Spirit is the one who testifies,
and the Spirit is truth.
So there are three who testify,
the Spirit, the water, and the Blood,
and the three are of one accord.
If we accept human testimony,
the testimony of God is surely greater.
Now the testimony of God is this,
that he has testified on behalf of his Son.
Whoever believes in the Son of God
has this testimony within himself.
Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar
by not believing the testimony God has given about his Son.
And this is the testimony:
God gave us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son.
Whoever possesses the Son has life;
whoever does not possess the Son of God does not have life.

I write these things to you so that you may know
that you have eternal life,
you who believe in the name of the Son of God.

PSALM
PS 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20

Response: Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.

Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion.
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;
he has blessed your children within you.

He has granted peace in your borders;
with the best of wheat he fills you.
He sends forth his command to the earth;
swiftly runs his word!

He has proclaimed his word to Jacob,
his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
He has not done thus for any other nation;
his ordinances he has not made known to them. Alleluia.

GOSPEL
LK 5:12-16

It happened that there was a man full of leprosy in one of the towns where Jesus was;
and when he saw Jesus,
he fell prostrate, pleaded with him, and said,
“Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.”
Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said,
“I do will it. Be made clean.”
And the leprosy left him immediately.
Then he ordered him not to tell anyone, but
“Go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing
what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.”
The report about him spread all the more,
and great crowds assembled to listen to him
and to be cured of their ailments,
but he would withdraw to deserted places to pray.

Daily Reflection

Daily Reflection

9th January 2026

Friday after Epiphany

The first reading tells us that the victor over the world is one who “believes Jesus is the Son of God” who came through “water and blood”. This symbolism is typical of the Temple Sacrifice where blood and water of the sacrifices would pour out from the side of the Temple. The blood was expiation from sin and the water, for the washing, allowed the carcass to be offered in sacrifice.

To acknowledge Jesus as coming through water and blood is to acknowledge that it is through the sacrifice of Jesus that “we have eternal life”.

In the Gospel, a leper acknowledges that Jesus has the power not just to cleanse him but that He is also the eternal high priest who certifies the cure – “If you wish you can make me clean”. Only a priest could pronounce a person clean. Jesus not only heals the leper, but also gives him a mission – to “offer” the prescribed offering as “evidence” of the healing.

Our belief in Jesus is enhanced by our sharing of what Jesus does for us.

Courtesy: Archdiocese of Bombay