In today’s Gospel, we see Jesus presented as the Word. In a beautiful poetic way, the writer St. John brings us to the very beginning of time and reminds us that the Word was there from the very beginning.
Although it is difficult for us to conceive of this creation moment, we are connected to it in a special way. St. John writes that ‘…not one thing had it’s being but through him.’ And this includes us.
He also gives us the assurance that, if we come to know Jesus, we will become children of God: it is in short a poetic genealogy about ancestry going back to the very beginning, to God our Father, the Father of all.
We do not have quite the family orientated outlook as in the time of Jesus. But nevertheless, we recognize the importance of family and family history. To be able to trace our own line back to the beginning, and to say that we are the children of God, is an amazing thing.
In the midst of this assurance is the added sadness that his own people did not accept him. We see this very clearly in the Jesus ministry, and we see it today, too. There are of course people who have never accepted Jesus. But there are also those who think that they accept him, but who really do not have him in their hearts. They remain closed to themselves, closed to others, and closed to Jesus who is the way to the Father.
John writes: ‘The Word was the true light that enlightens all people.’ this true light is at variance to the light that many of us follow, that is, the false light of pride and wealth and power. Jesus came to give us the light that is himself, and by doing so he makes us children of God. This is our extraordinary inheritance, and by following Jesus’way, we shall become his children and find our way to paradise.
In the beginning was the Word:
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things came to be,
not one thing had its being but through him.
All that came to be had life in him
and that life was the light of men,
a light that shines in the dark,
a light that darkness could not overpower.
A man came, sent by God.
His name was John.
He came as a witness,
as a witness to speak for the light,
so that everyone might believe through him.
He was not the light,
only a witness to speak for the light.
The Word was the true light
that enlightens all people;
and he was coming into the world.
He was in the world
that had its being through him,
and the world did not know him.
He came to his own domain
and his own people did not accept him.
But to all who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God,
to all who believe in the name of him
who was born not out of human stock
or urge of the flesh
or will of man
but of God himself.
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 appears as his witness. He proclaims:
‘This is the one of whom I said:
He who comes after me ranks before me
because he existed before me’.
Indeed, from his fullness we have, all of us, received yes, grace in return for grace,
since, though the Law was given through Moses,
grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God;
it is the only Son, who is nearest to the Father’s heart,
who has made him known.
The Gospel of the Lord