Gospel for Sunday, January 05: John 1:1-18
II Sunday after Christmas
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God: 3 all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made of all that exists. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men; 5 the light shines in darkness, but the darkness did not receive it. 6 There came a man sent from God, and his name was John. 7 He came as a witness to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but he was to bear witness to the light. 9 The true light came into the world, the light that enlightens every man. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not recognize him. 11 He came among his own people, but his own people did not receive him.
12 To as many as received him, however, he gave power to become children of God: to those who believe in his name, 13 who were begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us; and we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 John bears witness to him and cries out, “Behold the man of whom I said, He that cometh after me is passed over before me, because he was before me.” 16 From his fullness we have all received and grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses, and grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 God no one has ever seen him: just the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has revealed him.
Lk 2:41-52
Dear sisters and brothers of Misericordia, I am Carlo Miglietta, a doctor, biblical scholar, layman, husband, father and grandfather (www.buonabibbiaatutti.it). Also today I share with you a short thought meditation on the Gospel, with special reference to the theme of mercy.
THE PROLOGUE OF JOHN’S Gospel (Jn. 1:1-18)
The Prologue of John’s Gospel is a free rhythmic song. Augustine and Chrysostom note that it is so lofty that only divine revelation could express it. And for John, precisely, the symbol of the eagle was chosen.
The Western Church used it as a blessing for the sick, the newly baptized, and at the end of Mass.
There has been much debate whether it had any relationship to the Gospel, whether it was a prelude to it, an outline, a summary, or simply a formulation of the kèrigma in Hellenistic terms to win over Greek readers.
It is probably an independent Christological hymn from the Johannine community (cf. other hymns in Phil 2:6-11; Col 1:15-20; Heb 1:2-5; Tim 3:16), repurposed to serve as an introduction to the Gospel.
Structure
Among the various possible structures, we recall the spiral structure: each cycle deals with the theme in its entirety, but subsequent cycles deepen it, make it more precise.
But perhaps more stimulating is the chiasmatic structure proposed by Boismard.
The prologue is the song of God’s Epiphany in the Word coming into the world and returning to the Father, which is the core of the Gospel, as explicated in John 16:28-29.
This descent and ascent develop symmetrically at specific historical moments.
1. The eternal Lògos is turned toward God: A (vv.1-2) and A’ (v.18)
2. Salvation history takes place within the framework of the old covenant (B, C, D: vv. 3-8) and the new (B’, C’, D’: vv. 15-17).
3. The core is the incarnation of the Word (E – E’: vv.9-11 E 14), the purpose of which is to make us children of God (F: vv. 12-13).
Willeuse distinguishes three moments in it:
1) Before the exit: the Word was facing God.
2) The exit: he descended into darkness, came into the world, was in the world, came among his people, set up his tent among us.
3) After the exit: Jesus Christ is turned toward the Father.
Exegesis
The Prologue announces John’s three-dimensional theology: revelation-faith-salvation.
Specifically:
1. The revealing Word
The word of God (Dabar IHWH) is seen as a person in Is 55:10-11 and Wis 18:15-16.
It is creative power in Sl 33:6-9 and in Sl 147:15.18-19, in Wis 9:1 and Sir 42:15.
It is identified with Torah (Law) in Sl 119; 78:10; Is 1:10; 2:3…
It is identified with Wisdom (Kokmah).
Such Wisdom:
(a) is with God before creation (Wis 9:4,9; Prov 8:22-23,30; Sir 24:3f…);
(b) is mediator of creation (Wis 9:1-2,9; 7:21,26; Prov 3:19-20; 8:26-30):
(c) she came to earth (Prov 8:31; Wis 7:22,27; 9:10; Sir 24:8-11; Enoch 42:2);
(d) she is the bearer of benefits to men (Sir 24:20; Prov 8:35; 9; 5…).
These concepts are even more evident in the Targum: the Memrà (= “Word” in Aramaic) has a creative, but above all a revelatory function. We read in the Neophiti Targum on Ex 12:42: “On the first night…the Memrà of God was shining light”; the same in the Targum Jerushalaim.
Genesis Rabba 1:3 notes that “light” appears five times in Gen 1:3-5, as five are the books of the Torah.
It is God’s memra that reveals and saves (cf. Targum Jerushalaim on Deut. 32:39 and Targum Neophytes on Lev. 22:23).
Thus it is emphasized that the law was before the world (Genesis Rabba 1:4), was life (Targum Neophiti on Gen 3:2), was light (Siphre on Nm 6:25; Testament of Levi 14:4; Dt Rabba 7:3), is God’s only-begotten daughter (Exodus Rabba 33:1), is in God’s bosom (Rabbi Elezer ben Jose, Midrash to Sl 90:3).
2. The revelatory incarnation
John’s “scandal” is that the Word of God, Torah, Wisdom (already identifiable with each other in the Old Testament) has become a historical man, Jesus of Nazareth: the Shekinàh has pitched its tent in the visible body of Jesus.
God has become history: he who sees Jesus sees the Father (12:45; 14:9)! It is the most shocking message in history, challenging us to answer. Who is Jesus to me? Do I accept him? Do I believe in him? Is he the friend who dialogues with me?
Is he my way, truth, life? Do I love Jesus? Do I seek him? Is he my everything, my only thought, the purpose of my life? Do I know that only he “who is in the bosom of the Father” (v. 18) can reveal the Father to me?
We needed John! The God we sought so much in the Old Testament has now been revealed in a man, walking with us, his Son Jesus Christ! Theology becomes Christology! Astonished we worship this man, this brother of ours, whom we have discovered to be the Shekinah of God in our midst. In him God dwells with us, we become “his things” (v. 11), God’s family, even his children (v. 12).
All that remains is for us to receive him, believing of his name (v. 12).
3. Salvation
Some theologians, such as Gustave Martelet, point out that the Incarnation, rather than having a redemptive-reparative sense, has meaning of completion of the creation plan. God, Love, wanting to have a partner in Love, creates man and the cosmos, but must create him other than himself. And if God is infinite man will be finite, if God is eternal man will be mortal, if God is immense man will be limited.
And that is why, Martelet notes, death was already in the world before the appearance of the first man and thus sin: just think of the extinction of certain species, such as the dinosaurs.
But God wants man immortal, limitless, divine. And therefore from the very first creative act there is provision for the Incarnation, by which it is God himself takes upon himself the limitation of man, and annihilates him in the Resurrection. The Word goes out from the Father, enters creation, and returns to the Father, but bringing with him man, finally “deified,” “son of God,” and with man the whole creation freed from evil. Genesis 1-2 is actually Revelation, it is prophecy of that free, immortal man who chats with God in the evening breeze, the man who is fulfilled only after the Incarnation of the Son, the true Adam, “the Man” par excellence, as Pilate prophesies in Jn 19:5, the firstborn among dead brothers (Rom 8:29), the firstborn of those who rise from the dead (Col 1:18 and Rev 1:5), the Archetype of all creation: “all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made of all that exists” (Jn 1:3).
Happy Mercy to all!
Anyone who would like to read a more complete exegesis of the text, or some insights, please ask me at migliettacarlo@gmail.com.