Holding on to the Light

December 31, 2025 – Wednesday, 7^th Day in the Octave of Christmas

Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/123125.cfm)

As this year comes to its final hours, many of us may be standing quietly between gratitude and uncertainty. Others are thankful that they survived another year filled with challenges. Others feel tired, wounded, or unsure of what lies ahead. Surveys and conversations tell us the same story that many people enter the new year carrying fear. There is the fear of instability, fear of failure, fear that things may not change for the better. In fact in the recent year-end survey by PAHAYAG, it showed that 58% of Filipino voters are pessimistic of the coming new year 2026.[1]

Yet, on this final day of the year 2025, the Church does not ignore these feelings. Instead, our liturgy on this last day of the year gently places before us the Word of God and asks us a deeper question. The question is, “In a world full of confusion and shifting voices, what truth will we hold on to as we begin a new year 2026?”

The first reading from the First Letter of John speaks with honesty and urgency. John tells the community that many voices have appeared, voices that confuse, divide, and lead people away from the truth. He speaks of those who left the community because they no longer remained rooted in what they had received from the beginning.

This is not just about false teachers long ago. It speaks to our present situation. Today, we are surrounded by many voices. We have the social media, opinions, ideologies, promises of quick solutions, propaganda filled with disinformation. And we realize that not all of them lead to life. Not all of them speak truth. Others even hide and bury the truth with their own narratives in order to advance their own political agenda at the expense of the powerless in our community and the common good.

John reminds us of something essential that we have been anointed by the Holy One, and we know the truth. This truth is not merely information. It is, rather, a relationship. It is the truth that we belong to God, and that God remains faithful even when the world feels unstable. As we close the year, this reminder matters because what we cling to shapes who we become.

Now, the Gospel brings us back to the beginning. “In the beginning was the Word,” John tells us.  These words are familiar, but today they sound different. As one year ends and another begins, the Gospel tells us that before our plans, before our fears, before our successes and failures, the Word already existed. And this Word did not remain distant from us. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

This is the heart of our faith and of what we celebrate in the Season of Christmas. God chose not to watch humanity from afar. God entered our history, our struggles, and our darkness. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. This is not a poetic line meant only for Christmas morning. It is a promise meant for moments like when we stand at the edge of a new year or unsure of what awaits us.

Indeed, as Filipinos, we have seen families strained by hardship, young people discouraged by uncertainty, communities wounded by division and dishonesty. We have also seen how easy it is to grow numb, to lose hope, or to settle for half-truths that make life more convenient. But today, the Gospel gently but firmly calls us back to the light.

Hence, as we enter a new year, we are called to remain in the truth by choosing to walk in the light of Christ. Remaining is not passive. It is a daily decision. It means refusing to let fear define us. It also means not allowing lies, hatred, or indifference to shape our hearts.

This means as well that John’s warning is also an invitation. If there are voices we have followed that have made us more bitter, more divided, or less compassionate, this is the moment to let them go. If there are habits we have carried this year that dimmed our conscience, this is the moment to leave them behind. The new year does not begin with fireworks alone. It begins with clarity of heart and of our mind.

The Word became flesh so that truth would no longer be abstract. Truth now has a face, the face of Jesus. Truth now has a way of living through love, honesty, humility, and courage. When we choose these, we walk in the light of Christ.

As we prepare to cross into a new year, may we do so not with loud promises, but with quiet resolve. Let us carry with us what truly lasts. The light has already come and the question now is whether we will walk by it.

May Christ, the Word made flesh, be the truth we hold on to, the light we follow, and the hope that leads us forward into the year ahead. Hinaut pa.

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[1] https://www.bworldonline.com/the-nation/2025/12/29/721544/nearly-60-pessimistic-about-2026-survey/