Word to the Wise
Thursday, January 2, 2025 - Jan. 2
[1 John 2:22-28 and John 1:19-28,282]Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made us: eternal life. [1 John]
JANUARY 2 STS. BASIL THE GREAT AND GREGORY NAZIANZEN, bishops and doctors of the church
The first preaching of the gospel by the earliest disciples was oral. Word of mouth, based on the experience of the Holy Spirit spread the gospel first in Jerusalem but then, due to persecution and missionary energy, to the world of the Roman Empire and beyond. Different interpretations of the significance of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus were bound to develop which would claim apostolic authority for their truth. The preaching of St. Paul, followed by the four gospels and the other testimonies of the New Testament, was an effort to keep the truth of Jesus authentic. But the way was not narrow and the interpretation represented in the traditions preached in the Gospel According to John and the Letters of John is quite distinct from St. Paul and the three synoptic gospels (Mark, Matthew and Luke). In these days immediately following the celebration of the earthly birth of Jesus, the Johannine vision of the significance of Jesus' birth and life are highlighted at the celebration of the Eucharist.
One characteristic of the Johannine preaching is the emphasis on the "beginning." We see this in today's first scripture reading from the First Letter of John, which can refer us back to the Prologue to the Gospel According to John: In the beginning was the Word. The "beginning" takes us back all the way to creation and eternity! Jesus offers us "eternal life" through faith in him. This is a wider vision that takes us beyond history and even the Second Coming, which itself will occur at some point at the end of time. These are very wide thoughts that challenge us to wide horizons, but we are also challenged in this same Johannine tradition to "love one another as I have loved you" as the manifestation of our faith and the key to eternal life. AMEN