The Seventh
Day in the Octave of Christmas
December 31, 2015 8:30am
Today’s gospel is one of the most
magnificent passages in the Bible.
It is the beginning or what is
called the prologue to John’s Gospel.
Instead of giving the warm and
wonderful details of Jesus’ birth as Matthew and Luke do, John reflects on what
this birth means.
John starts: “In the beginning was the Word [Word with a capital W], and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God.”
One of our Catholic theologians
explains John’s concept of the Word – again with a capital W – in this way.
He says that the thought or idea
which God has of himself is so perfect, since God is perfect, that this thought
or idea is also a person.
It is what John calls the Word.
So John says: “In the beginning was the Word.”
He is very clear: the Word was
there at the very beginning, and that means at the time of creation.
The Word is there before creation
and is not part of creation.
The Word is part of eternity.
John is thinking of what we, in
theological terms, call the preexistence of Christ.
Then John says: “And the Word was with God.”
We can derive a conclusion to
this statement and John seems to want us to do that.
If the Word preexisted and always
was with God, then there is an intimate connection between Jesus and God.
In fact, it is such an intimate connection
that John next says: “And the Word was
God.”
The Word was so one with God that
the Word was God too.
And then the impact of both of
these statements – “And the Word was with
God and the Word was God” – the impact is that Jesus is the one person who
reveals to us most perfectly who and what God is.
There is nowhere else that we can
get a fuller picture and understanding of God than in Jesus who is the Word of
God made flesh.
John, writing around year 90,
gives us this profound understanding of what the birth of Christ means.
