Daily Catholic Lectio
Wed, 14 January ‘26
First Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday
1 Sam 3:1-10, 19-20. Mk 1:29-39
Lamp of God
The first reading opens with a series of disturbing statements. The word of the Lord was rare. Visions were not frequent. Eli’s eyes were growing dim. Everything points to spiritual decline. God seems silent. Leadership is weakening. Sight—both physical and spiritual—is fading. And then comes a quiet but powerful sentence: “The lamp of God had not yet gone out.” Darkness is real, but it is not total. God has not withdrawn. A light is still burning.
That lamp is Samuel. Young, unnoticed, and still learning to listen, Samuel stands before God while others are losing sight. Through him, the word will be heard again. Through him, vision will return. Samuel becomes the lamp of God—not because he is strong or experienced, but because he is attentive and available. When the night is long, God does not light a floodlight; he lights a lamp.
In the Gospel, we see the fullness of this image in Jesus. He is the true Lamp of God, shining among the people of Capernaum. His light reaches into ordinary places: Simon Peter’s house, the courtyard filled with the sick, the streets crowded with suffering humanity. Wherever Jesus goes, darkness retreats—illness, fear, and despair give way to healing and hope. Yet the Gospel also shows us something essential: Jesus protects and renews his light. Before dawn, he withdraws to a deserted place to pray. The lamp is sustained by his encounter with the Father.
When the disciples come with excitement—“Everyone is looking for you!”—they offer him popularity and comfort. But Jesus refuses to be trapped by success. His vision is clear. He chooses mission over applause, purpose over popularity. “Let us go on to the neighbouring towns,” he says. The lamp is not meant to stay in one place; it is meant to move where light is needed.
From these readings, two clear lessons emerge.
First, we are called to identify God’s lamp among us. Even when the word seems rare and vision unclear, the lamp of God still burns. It shines in the Word of God that speaks anew when we listen. It shines in the Eucharist, where Christ becomes light and life for us. It shines in human persons—especially the poor, the suffering, the unnoticed—through whom God continues to speak. The question is not whether the lamp is lit, but whether we are attentive enough to see it.
Second, we are called to become God’s lamp for others. Samuel responds and grows. Jesus keeps moving with clarity and courage. Both refuse to settle into comfort. To be God’s lamp means to live with a clear vision, to step beyond familiar spaces, to carry light into places of darkness. A lamp does not exist for itself; it exists to give light.
In a world where words are confused, visions blurred, and many lose sight of hope, God still says: the lamp has not yet gone out. May we learn to recognise that lamp among us—and may we allow God to make us lamps for others, shining quietly, faithfully, and courageously.
Finally, today, in India, we celebrate Saint Devasahayam, a shining lamp of God in a time of intense darkness. Surrounded by persecution, humiliation, and rejection, he refused to let the lamp of faith be extinguished. Stripped of dignity, tortured, and finally put to death, Devasahayam did not cling to safety or popularity. Like Samuel, he listened only to the voice of God; like Jesus, he remained faithful to his mission even when it led to suffering. His life proclaims that a lamp does not stop shining because of wind or darkness—it shines precisely because of them. In him, we see that faith sustained by prayer and conviction can illumine even the path to martyrdom.
May Saint Devasahayam inspire us to keep the lamp of faith burning steadily in our own lives, even when it costs us comfort, acceptance, or security.
Fr. Yesu Karunanidhi
Archdiocese of Madurai
Missionary of Mercy
Yesu Karunanidhi 
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