Christmas I

Christmas I

In the beginning was the Word

Jesus Christ is the incarnate co eternal Word of God.

When the beloved apostle John writes about the Word of God he writes about the logos. The Greeks defined the logos as the transcendent rational creative pattern of the universe. The logos is that which transcends the realm of men and gods, heaven and earth, matter and energy, space and time, reason ,will and emotion. The logos is timeless, unbounded, all encompassing and transcendent. The logos is that which no one can know, perceive or understand. The logos is the pattern for the universe from the very large to the very small.

From the Greek perspective, to the extent that the gods and goddesses had any objective reality, their existence derived from the logos. John makes the very bold and astonishing statement that the logos, the eternal Word, became a particular man, Jesus Christ.
Suddenly, that which is unknown is made known. That which by nature is unknowable is knowable. That which is inherently transcendent is incarnate. That which is impersonal is personal.

How did John come to this understanding?

First: he lived with Jesus for three critical years. John was a young teen when Jesus called him to be one of his students. John spent his formative years observing Jesus Christ, listening to him, walking along the dusty roads of Judea and Galilee with him. John memorized Jesus’ teachings. This was not unusual for a student in that part of the world. The act of memorization is common. The subject matter was unique. Jesus re presented the teachings of Moses and the Prophets in a way that had never been heard. John absorbed this teaching at first with little understanding.

When Jesus died on the cross, John was still a teen. Jesus made provision to complete John’s education by entrusting him to the care of Holy Mother Mary. She whom the archangel Gabriel described as full of grace had the experience, the knowledge, the understanding and the wisdom to direct John’s spiritual development.

After Jesus rose from the dead, He sent the Holy Spirit to anoint the apostles. Before his execution, Jesus had promised to send a Counselor, an Advisor. That Counselor is the Holy Spirit.

John waited to write his account of the Good News until much later in his life. He had the wisdom of Holy Mother Mary, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and a lifetime of prayerful reflection on his personal experience of Jesus to draw on.

John’s conclusion about Jesus forms the prologue to his gospel account. He starts his book in the same way the author of Genesis started the first book of the Torah. In the beginning.

Where Genesis declares simply: in the beginning God, John expands that declaration and says: in the beginning was the Word, the logos. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. John concludes his introduction by declaring that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. That incarnation of the co-eternal Word of God is Jesus Christ.

John states: all things were made through him. As the incarnate logos, Jesus is the pattern by which, through which and for which the entire universe and each and every one of us was created. We are in fact God the Father’s gift to God the Son.

This is the context and the meaning of Jesus’ statement: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus is the logos, the transcendent rational creative pattern of the universe. To reject Jesus is to reject the pattern by which everything was created and has its form and function.

The negative reaction that so many people have to John’s revelation of who Jesus is serves to highlight the problem confronting the human race. As a species we have in fact rejected the logos. We have chosen to separate from the logos. As a species we embraced the concept that life, the universe and everything created itself. In that choice we declare our independence from any transcendent reality, meaning, and purpose to life. We reject universal meaning and embrace individual separation.

John offers us a different choice. He tells us later in his gospel: I have seen him, heard him, touched him, observed his miracles, pondered his teachings. I was there when the Romans tortured him to death. I saw his lifeless body placed in the arms of his grieving mother. I was there at the empty tomb. I saw the angels. I knew with every fiber of my being that he lived. I bear witness to you that in Jesus Christ, God united his divinity with our humanity. In Jesus Christ God demonstrated that the divine nature is pure, holy, unconditional love.

Jesus is the meaning and purpose to life, the universe and everything. He has come to find the lost. He has come to restore to wholeness what was broken. He has come to make known the unknowable.

Jesus offers to all people everywhere the gift of eternal life. Eternal life is not a quantity of time but a quality of relationship. Eternal life is not a future reward. Eternal life is a present reality. Eternal life is a new way of living that John himself discovered and experienced as he learned the wisdom of Mary and the divine Presence of the Holy Spirit.

The great gift of God to all people is the incarnation of the logos, the very plan and pattern and purpose for our existence. The great gift of God to humanity is Jesus Christ who is the eternal life of divine love and compassion shining in the darkness of human fear, self will and pride.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the Word was God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us in the Person of Jesus Christ.