Photo: CNS The Gospel for this Sunday is the prologue of the Gospel of John. For the past week we have had the stories of the birth of Jesus and the events of his early life. But John begins with a vast timescale of God’s action, going back to the eons before creation and then advances through creation of the universe, revelation to people, his coming in human flesh and his invitation to us to become children of God. John is different from the other evangelists in the way he taps into the mentality of Greek philosophy, beginning with the concept of Logos, translated as the Word. The prologue develops the coming of the Word in five stages.
The Eternal Word
In the inner depth of the Blessed Trinity, the Father expresses total fullness in the Son, here called the Word. In the perfection of divine expression, one Word expresses all.
“In the beginning was the Word:
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.”
Jesus is eternal in terms of time since he is before all ages. And he is eternal in terms of the fullness of grace and truth, being the perfect and complete expression of the Father.
The creating Word
He is the Word through whom all things are created. In the Bible’s first account of creation, God did not so much make things but said them into life. “God said ‘Let there be light’; and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). The Word of God creates life. “All things were made through him and without him nothing came to be.” This is not a scientific explanation of the origin of the universe but a sacred text. According to Pope St John Paul II, “The Bible itself speaks to us of the origin of the universe, not in order to provide us with a scientific treatise but in order to state the correct relationship of humanity with God and the universe. Sacred Scripture wishes simply to declare that the world was created by God.”
Everything in creation is sacred since it originated in God’s Word. The sensitive soul is aware of God in all the wonders of creation, great and small. Shakespeare wrote that there are “tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.”
Pope Francis chose St Francis of Assisi as his guide and inspiration. His contribution to the meetings on climate change, in Paris six years ago and recently in Glasgow, were hugely significant. Experts in fossil fuel, rising seas, economics etc. needed a transcendent vision to unify the various fields of knowledge, and Pope Francis supplied it. Treat yourself for the new year by reading his Encyclical Letter, Laudato Si’, On care for our common home. St Francis saw the hand of the divine artist in all the artistry of nature. To him everything was a brother or a sister. Inspired by his patron saint, Pope Francis writes: “The universe unfolds in God who fills it completely. Hence there is a mystical meaning to be found in a leaf, in a mountain trail, in a dewdrop, in a poor person’s face. The ideal is not only to pass from the exterior to the interior to discover the action of God in the soul, but also to discover God in all things” (Laudato Si’, 233).
The revealing Word
The third stage of John’s prologue brings us into human history. “What has come into being was life, life that was the light of people; and light shines in the darkness, and darkness could not overpower it” (John 1:4-5). There are religions which are based on the mysteries of the natural world and its seasons. Others that follow the teaching of great sages. The Judaeo-Christian tradition is based on the belief that God made direct revelation to human beings. Revelation began with Abraham, the father of believers, and reached its climax in Jesus, the light of the world. John the Baptist was the last of the prophets who prepared the way. He was not the light but a witness to introduce the light. Jesus, the Word of God, was the true light that enlightens all people.
The Word in human flesh
The fourth stage of the prologue is the incarnation, the coming of the Word in a human body, born in Bethlehem. “The Word was made flesh, he lived among us, and we saw his glory, the glory that is his as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The evangelist John is depicted in art as an eagle, deemed to be the only creature that can look directly into the light of the sun without damaging its eyes. John’s writing sees the glory of God filtered to the limitations of the human mind in the human life of Jesus. If you want to know about God, the surest way is to study Jesus every day … what he said, how he acted, what he stood for. Towards the end of his life, he assured the apostle, Philip, “To have seen me is to have seen the Father.” He was the Word made flesh.
The inviting Word
Jesus respected human freedom. He did not force himself on people. His life was an invitation to people to respond to his way, his truth and his life. Throughout this Gospel we are told how people reacted to Jesus. Some rejected him, others accepted. “He came to his own and his own people did not accept him. But to those who accepted him, he gave power to become children of God to those who believed in his name” (John 1:11-12). In this Gospel, belief is never a noun but always a verb. Believing is more than the intellectual acceptance of doctrines: it is the power of becoming children of God. The Latin verb credo literally means I give my heart to God’s invitation.
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Prayer
O Jesus, you are the sacred Word of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made.
Through you all things were made. Open up our sensitivity to your presence in all of your creation. May our hearts expand in wonder and praise.
You came into our world. You lived among us. You humbled yourself to share in our humanity so that we might share in your divinity.
Grant us the grace to follow your way, to believe in your truth and to share in your life.
Fr Silvester O’Flynn’s book Gospel Reflections and Prayers is available at columbabooks.com