Wednesday in the Octave of Christmas, December 31, 2025

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, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” St. John deliberately begins his Gospel with these words, modeled after the opening words of the Book of Genesis, which are usually translated from the Hebrew as “In the beginning, God created heaven and earth.”   But the Hebrew is not easy to translate because of its form — it is not a simple prepositional phrase as it is found in Greek and Latin translations.  It can also mean “In the beginning — when God began to create the heavens and the earth”, or even as, “In the beginning as God was creating.” John’s choice to render it in Greek as, “In the beginning, etc.” shows the phrase not as a part of a narrative or as an explanation, but as a proclamation.  John, in fact, takes us back beyond the time of the creation into the eternity of God. He says, in effect, “Before God created the heavens and the earth, from all eternity, the Word was.” The Word is not part of creation. He is uncreated, and yet he is.

“And the Word was with God.” The Greek proposition reveals the orientation of the Word in regards to God: it is “with” and “towards” God. This means an intimacy with God as well as equality with him, and this from all eternity. “And the Word was God.” This tells us that the Divine stood before and faced the Divine. We learn from this that the Word is equal to God in power and majesty. But how can this be if we cling to the doctrine, revealed by God himself, that he is one and there is no other (Isaiah 45, 5)? The full truth comes only at the end of the Reading, when John identifies the Word as Jesus Christ.

John’s Gospel does not begin by naming Jesus. In stead, it begins by contemplating the eternal Word — his relation to God, to creation, and to humanity. only after the reader has been led through eternity, creation, revelation, and Incarnation does John finally speak the name “Jesus Christ”. This delay is not accidental. It is a literary and theological strategy. John ensures that when Jesus is named, he is already understood — not merely as a historical teacher but as the eternal Word made flesh. This Jesus — the only one who can answer the question regarding the oneness of God — declares, “The Father and I are one” (John 10, 30). That is, the one God is not solitary, he is a communion of divine Persons. The union of Father and Son is so perfect that they are one God (in the unity of the Holy Spirit, as he would later teach).

He makes his identity and the nature of God known through his Incarnation by which he could live among us: “The Word became flesh.” To look into his, then, was to look into the eyes of Almighty God through whom “all things came to be.” To hear him speak was to hear the voice of him without whom “nothing came to be.” And yet there were some — even his own people (whether this is understood of his relatives, his townsfolk, his fellow Jews, or the human race) who rejected him. This rejection reflects not ignorance, since he spoke with them face to face and showed the works of the Father, but through malice. But for those who accepted him, “he gave power to become children of God” and so heirs to eternal life.

This is the destiny open to us if we fully accept him in our lives and follow the commandments that make us resemble him in his Sonship.