The Solemnity of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, Sunday, December 25, 2022

John 1, 1–18

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.  He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him. But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God. And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth. John testified to him and cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.’ ”  From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace, because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him. 

“In the beginning was the Word.”  The Greek logos, usually translated as “word” has a wealth of meanings, including “reason”, “plan”, and “speech”.  Because the verb to-be is in the imperfect in John 1, 1, the Word “was being” or “was existing” in “the beginning”.  St. John does not tell us “in the beginning” of what or who, but we can look back to the very beginning of the Bible, which seems to provide the inspiration or model for the first verse of John’s Gospel.  This is usually translated into English as “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”, but the Hebrew grammar is not so clear as that.  Noting the grammar, this phrase might be also be translated as “When, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  The phrase means that God himself is “the beginning” of all things.  Understanding the phrase this way, “In the beginning was the Word” tells us of the intimate union of the Father and the Son — his Word.  This is strengthened by the next phrase, “and the Word was with God”.  The Greek pros does not mean “with” in the sense of accompaniment, and is better translated as “towards” or “before”.  Thus, the Father and the Son are  face-to-face in their intimate union: they are not the same Person, but distinct Persons, and yet in perfect union.  “And the Word was God.”  The Persons are both divine and they are equal in power and majesty.

“All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.”  This verse completes the story of creation that we find in the very first words of Genesis.  The existence of the Son through whom all things were made was held back by the Father until the time came for him to “make his dwelling among us”.  “And the Word became flesh.”  The Greek verb for this phrase means “to be born”,  and the noun translated as “flesh” is in the nominative, not the accusative, as the lectionary translation would have it, but “the Word” is also nominative, so it is not an easy phrase to translate.  The best we can do, perhaps, is “And the Word joined himself to flesh and was born.”  Literally, it would be, “the Word-flesh was born”, or, “the Word was born as flesh” — though he remained the Word. “And made his dwelling among us.”  Literally, “he encamped among us”, or “dwelt in a tent among us”.  The root of the verb is the word for “tent”, and this draws the mind back to the long ago times when Israel lived entirely in tents and moved about through the land of Canaan.  It is as though God were returning the nation back to its original order under Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or, perhaps, as in the days of the Exodus.

The Son of God exchanged his intimacy with the Father in heaven for intimacy with us — the creatures made through him, that is, modeled on him.  We see the reality of this separation in his cry from the Cross: “My God, my God, who have you abandoned me?”  But we can also see his Incarnation and Birth of his returning us to the Father in an intimacy bonded by the Holy Spirit.

I wish everyone a Merry and Holy Christmas, and I will remember you at my Mass at 7:30 AM on Christmas morning!