Gospel for Sunday, January 2: John 1: 1-18
II Sunday after Christmas
1In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God: 3everything was made through him, and without him nothing was made of all that exists. 4In him was life and life was the light of men; 5the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not welcome it. 6A man came sent from God and his name was John. 7He came as a witness to bear witness to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He was not the light, but he had to bear witness to the light. 9The true light came into the world, the one that illuminates every man. 10He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not recognize him. 11He came among his people, but his own did not welcome him. 12However, to those who welcomed him, he gave power to become children of God: to those who believe in his name, 13who were generated not by blood, nor by the will of the flesh, nor by the will of man, but by God. 14And the Word became flesh and came to live among us; and we saw the glory of him, glory of him as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 15John bears witness to him and shouts: «Here is the man of whom I said: He who comes after me has passed before me, because he was before me». 16From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace 17Because the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God: it is precisely the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, that he has revealed.
John 1: 1-18
Dear Sisters and Brothers of the Misericordie, I am Carlo Miglietta, doctor, biblical scholar, layman, husband, father and grandfather (www.buonabibbiaatutti.it).
Also today I share with you a short meditation thought on the Gospel, with special reference to the theme of mercy.
“Let’s first say that the prologue of the Gospel of John is a hymn to God’s optimism about humanity, a hymn of the love that God has for us. The oldest commentary we have on this passage is from the same school as John; the first letter begins with the theologian’s own expressions and continues by saying: “These things we write to you, so that our joy may be perfect” (1 John 1:4). We already find a detail here: the transmission of this prologue, the transmission of the Gospel, the transmission of the community’s experience of faith, is not carried out as we would have expected. John does not say: «so that your joy may be perfect», but he says: «These things we write to you, so that our joy may be perfect»; the joy of the community of believers consists in transmitting this message, a message which, in turn, will cause joy for those who welcome it and those who live it” (A. Maggi)
“The prologue of the gospel according to John is a song of praise of God’s work in the universe: from creation in the in-beginning (cf. Gen 1,1) to the coming of God himself into the world through becoming human flesh (sárx ) of his Word (Lógos)…
In the beginning, therefore before the creation of the universe, the Word was, existed outside of time, from all eternity. It was the Word of God, it was directed towards God, it was God himself. But this divine life, this circularity of life in an ecstatic movement wanted to give itself, wanted to come out of itself, and this is how it created the universe…, showing itself to be life and light capable of overcoming darkness: darkness, in fact, they did and do resist, but they have never succeeded and will never succeed in stopping and overpowering this light.
But this exit, this exile of the Word of God from God himself did not cease with creation, which in reality never ended… So it entered time and pitched its tent (skené) among us in a man born of a woman and the divine Breath: Jesus of Nazareth. The Word that was outside of time became fragile and mortal, a man who could be seen, heard, touched (see 1 John 1:1)… But in Jesus this Word of God became “Word made flesh” in him (see Heb 1:2-3). Thus God gave himself to us, he gave himself to humanity, he united with creation, because he had created it out of love, a love that never failed, but was always renewed throughout history. And the life of Jesus will be the clarification of what is announced here in the prologue: Jesus is the life of the world (see John 11.25), he is “the light of the world” (John 8.12), he is the story , the revelation of the God no one has ever seen, as the prologue ends…
We could paraphrase the words of the Apostle Paul (see 1 Cor 1:22-24): “While the Jews seek manifestations of an almighty God and the people seek manifestations of God in intellectual reasoning, we preach that God is human, very human, he is a God who made himself seen in Jesus, a mortal man, but capable of giving his life for others (see John 10.10; 15.13), a fragile and limited man but capable of overcoming the forces of evil. A man who was born from the womb of a mother, who made himself a sin by assimilating himself to sinners (see 2 Cor 5:21), died like a slave and a criminal, buried in the earth, descended into hell among the dead, like every son of Adam: therefore a God who sank into creation, as happens with every human who comes into the world, lives and dies” (E. Bianchi).
“Christmas forcefully projects us into the very life of God, into the Holy of Holies of Eternity, into the very identity of that man who now and only now manifests himself to us as the Only Begotten Son and comes to tell us the face of the Father. We can not only grasp and recognize this face and this identity, but participate in the Lògos-Word and in the Lògos-Flesh that is given to us in the Easter celebration which is the Eucharist, the true Tent of the Dwelling, the Holy of Holies of Humanity of Christ, the Ark of the New Covenant in which we become children in the Son” (P. Farinella).
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.