Word to the Wise
Saturday, December 31, 2022 - Dec. 31 - 7th Day in the Octave of Christmas
[1 John 2:18-21 and 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.....And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only-begotten Son, full of grace and truth....From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace.....[John]
The Bible contains many beautiful and majestic passages, but the Prologue to the Gospel According to John has to be one of the best! Scripture scholars believe it was written last because it seems to sum up so much of the theology of the whole gospel. I think it is much like the overture to an opera or musical. The three synoptic gospels are wonderful for their portraits of Jesus' earthly origins, life, death and resurrection. The Fourth Gospel hits at the meaning of Jesus and how that developed in the gradual spread of the gospel beyond Jerusalem and its Jewish roots. Today's passage, which I have excerpted a bit, touches on that "meaning" in a wonderful way. Those of us who remember the pre-Vatican II Mass can recall that this passage was read as the "Last Gospel" after the final blessing and we all genuflected at the words "et Verbum caro factum est..."