Ukrainian Catholic ChurchAustralia, New Zealand and Oceania
Homily by Fr. Zenon Racki on the Sunday before Theophany
January 3, 2026
The Sunday before Theophany is a time when we have the opportunity to prepare ourselves spiritually and deeply for this great feast, to fill our hearts with thoughts of it. The Church prepares us for this day with the word of God. So we pray sincerely, listen, take God’s words to heart, go, draw water, carry it to our homes, partake of this water, bless what we need to bless, and rejoice that our Saviour Jesus Christ is with us—in church and in our homes.
Christ is born!
Dear brothers and sisters!
The Sunday before Theophany is a time when we have the opportunity to prepare ourselves spiritually and deeply for this great feast, to fill our hearts with thoughts of it. The Church prepares us for this with the word of God. St. Mark begins his Gospel account with the figure of St. John the Baptist, who was only three months older than Jesus Christ.
In the Old Testament, we read that St. John is the Forerunner promised by God, the one who prepares the way for someone else. And he prepared the way for Jesus Christ, our Saviour. The prophets Isaiah and Malachi write, “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me” (Mal. 3:1); “Behold, I send my messenger before you, who will prepare your way. A voice crying out in the wilderness” (Mark 1:2–3); or: “A voice is heard: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness; make straight in the desert a highway for our God’” (Isaiah 40:3).
Indeed, St. John the Baptist encourages the people to prepare themselves inwardly for the coming of the promised Messiah.
We recently celebrated Christmas, and already on the Sunday after Christmas we read in the Gospel that Jesus Christ is twelve years old and is in the temple among the elders and priests. And today we hear about Jesus, who is already thirty years old. We see that we have very little information about the life of Jesus Christ from birth to adulthood. Therefore, St. John the Baptist fulfils his mission and says, “After me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.”
And he clearly says, “I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:7–8). Indeed, many people followed John the Baptist, repented of their sins, were baptised, and fasted because they imitated St. John the Baptist, who fasted and prayed a lot in his life. And after the baptism of Jesus Christ, many of this crowd no longer followed John but Jesus Christ, because they saw in Him their Saviour.
Therefore, this Sunday is important for us—it is a Sunday of prayer, a time of preparation for the Epiphany. John the Baptist prepares us with his preaching, and the Old Testament prophets who wrote about John the Baptist and Jesus Christ prepare us. Our people have extremely beautiful customs associated with the Gospel readings on Epiphany.
We will come to the baptismal font where the priest blessed the holy water with a cross, which means that Jesus Christ himself blessed this water. We will listen to sermons — God’s words, which must enter our hearts, give meaning to this great feast of Epiphany and meaning to this holy water, blessed in the name of God.
So we pray sincerely, listen, take God’s words to heart, go, draw water, carry it to our homes, partake of this water, and bless what we need to bless, especially our homes where we live, where there are crosses and icons. And we rejoice that our Saviour Jesus Christ is present with us, both in church and in our homes.
Christ is born!
