St. Thomas of Canterbury - 'You have prepared a light to enlighten the pagans' 2025

'You have prepared a light to enlighten the pagans'

St Thomas of Canterbury (Saint Thomas Becket) feast day - Monday 29 December 2025

Father Adrian's Homily

Fr Adrian discusses the two images below in his homily

St John’s College, Oxford Ms 82 22r

St John’s College Oxford Ms 208 fol 6v

First reading - 1 John 2:3-11

Anyone who loves his brother is living in the light

We can be sure that we know God

only by keeping his commandments.

Anyone who says, ‘I know him’,

and does not keep his commandments,

is a liar,

refusing to admit the truth.

But when anyone does obey what he has said,

God’s love comes to perfection in him.

We can be sure that we are in God

only when the one who claims to be living in him

is living the same kind of life as Christ lived.

My dear people,

this is not a new commandment that I am writing to tell you,

but an old commandment

that you were given from the beginning,

the original commandment which was the message brought to you.

Yet in another way, what I am writing to you,

and what is being carried out in your lives as it was in his,

is a new commandment;

because the night is over

and the real light is already shining.

Anyone who claims to be in the light

but hates his brother

is still in the dark.

But anyone who loves his brother is living in the light

and need not be afraid of stumbling;

unlike the man who hates his brother and is in the darkness,

not knowing where he is going,

because it is too dark to see.

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 95(96):1-3,5-6

Let the heavens rejoice and earth be glad.

O sing a new song to the Lord,

sing to the Lord all the earth.

O sing to the Lord, bless his name.

Let the heavens rejoice and earth be glad.

Proclaim his help day by day,

tell among the nations his glory

and his wonders among all the peoples.

Let the heavens rejoice and earth be glad.

It was the Lord who made the heavens,

his are majesty and state and power

and splendour in his holy place.

Let the heavens rejoice and earth be glad.

Gospel - Luke 2:22-35

'You have prepared a light to enlighten the pagans'

When the day came for them to be purified as laid down by the Law of Moses, the parents of Jesus took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord – observing what stands written in the Law of the Lord: Every first-born male must be consecrated to the Lord – and also to offer in sacrifice, in accordance with what is said in the Law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. Now in Jerusalem there was a man named Simeon. He was an upright and devout man; he looked forward to Israel’s comforting and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death until he had set eyes on the Christ of the Lord. Prompted by the Spirit he came to the Temple and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the Law required, he took him into his arms and blessed God; and he said:

‘Now, Master, you can let your servant go in peace,

just as you promised;

because my eyes have seen the salvation

which you have prepared for all the nations to see,

a light to enlighten the pagans

and the glory of your people Israel.’

As the child’s father and mother stood there wondering at the things that were being said about him, Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, ‘You see this child: he is destined for the fall and for the rising of many in Israel, destined to be a sign that is rejected – and a sword will pierce your own soul too – so that the secret thoughts of many may be laid bare.’

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