Second Sunday after Christmas

Gospel Reading: John 1:1-18

1 ln the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God.
2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things came to be, not one thing had its being but through him.
4 All that came to be had life in him and that life was the light of men,
5 a light that shines in the dark, a light that darkness could not overpower.
6 A man came, sent by God. His name was John.
7 He came as a witness, as a witness to speak for the light, so that everyone might believe through him.
8 He was not the light, only a witness to speak for the light.
9 The Word was the true light that enlightens all men; and he was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world that had its being through him, and the world did not know him.
 11 He came to his own domain and his own people did not accept him.
12 But to all who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to all who believe in the name of him
13 who was born not out of human stock or urge of the flesh or will of man but of God himself.
14 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.
15 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
16 Indeed, from his fulness we have, all of us, received - yes, grace
    in return for grace,
17 since, though the Law was given through Moses, grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ.
18 No one has ever seen God; it is the only Son, who is nearest to the Father's heart, who has made him known.

Meditation

This passage is the prologue to St John's gospel, a very deep teaching on the mystery of the incarnation. But do not let your­self be intimidated by the depth; remember that it was written for you; like the whole Bible, it was 'for you and for your salv­ation that it came down from heaven.

It may be helpful to divide the passage as follows:
Verse 1: The Word of God which was made flesh had his be­ginnings with God before creation. Identify what in your experi­ence was an incarnation of the Word and then remember when you knew that this word was with God from all eternity.
Verses 2-5: The story of creation, understood as an                     ongoing process.
Verses 6-8: the vocation of John the Baptist; recognise in him vocation of all great people.
Verses 9-14: St John's presentation of the incarnation, Recognise the mystery from your own experience, in particular the strange mystery of the one who made and sustains humanity being rejected by this same humanity.
Verses 16-18: A further meditation on the mystery of the incarnation. Note especially the process of growth 'from grace to grace', and the difference between Jesus and all others.

‘To the end of our lives the Bible remains an unexplored and unsub-land full of concealed wonders and choice treasures.'
Cardinal Newman

Lord we thank you for the deep moments of Bible reading when we knew that we were in the presence of a Word  which existed from the beginning before time began,  which was with you before you created the world, which was truly divine, with you from the beginning, and which was made flesh and was living among us.

‘In mediitation I pass through my body which exists in time and space,  and beyond my thoughts which reflect my body-consciousness. I discover     my ground in the Word, my real self which exists eternally in God and with God.'
Bede Griffiths

Lord we thank you for the moments of deep prayer when we knew that we have life in your Word, that word which was in the beginning, which was with you and was you.

Lord humanity today wants to live independently of you, and even Christians speak as if you created the worldand then left it to its own devices.       

We thank you for the teaching of St John remindig us that all things come to be only because you speak a Word,and that every single thing that exists today has its being because that Word continues to be spoken in it, and the only way that anything which has come to be has life today is because your Word lives within it.

'Perestroika shows that there are some live cells still left in our society, battling against the disintegration of the Spirit.'
A Russian writer

Lord, we thank you that the human spirit is unconquerable, it is a light that comes from you, a light that continues to shine even when there is great darkness, a light that no darkness can overcome.

'Far from being the ultimate measure of all things, human beings can only realise themselves by reaching beyond themselves.'
Paul VI, Populorum progressio

Lord, how true it is that we can only find our dignity as your sons and daughters if we believe that there is more to us than a human birth, the urges of the flesh and the human will and that within us your love is at work.

'Of all the crimes of colonialism there is none worse that the attempt to make us believe that we had no indigenous culture of our own.'
Julius Nyerere

Lord, we pray that as Christians we may live the message of the incarnation,
that your eternal Word was made flesh, so that in every culture you are at work, and if we look at our past in the light of faith we will see your glory, Jesus at work in our history, full of grace and truth.

Lord, a conversion experience is always a home-coming:

• turning away from an addiction,
• being reconciled with our family,
• forgiving an old hurt,
• going to confession after a long absence.

Once we are there we look back and wonder at our resistance. Here was something that we needed in order to live, and yet we did not recognise it; the truth of ourselves demanded it, and yet we did not accept to do it.

Now, Lord, by your grace, we know that your Word has been made flesh
and found a home in us. Thank you, Lord.

'One of the deepest joys of life is to be used for a purpose recognized  by yourself as a mighty One.'
George Bernard Shaw

Lord, we thank you for times when we have the deep satisfaction of knowing
that we were working for a noble cause, one that we know is far greater than ourselves, even though we are making a contribution to it, so that we can say like John the Baptist that what comes after us ranks before us because it existed before us.

'There is nothing in my former ministry that I would repudiate except sins and shortcomings. My becoming a priest in the Roman Catholic Church will be the completion and right ordering of what was begun  thirty years ago’
Richard Neuhaus, Lutheran pastor, on entering the Church and asking for ordination as a priest; October 1990

Lord we pray for all those re becoming members of our church, that they may experience their life up to now as being fulfilled, as having received from your fullness, of the present fulfilling the grace of the past.