The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary for the last day of 2018 resonate with our struggle in the temporal world that is connected to experience of eternal grace and truth.
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The First Letter of John warns against teaching in the world that is against Christ.
* [2:18] It is the last hour: literally, “a last hour,” the period between the death and resurrection of Christ and his second coming. The antichrist: opponent or adversary of Christ; the term appears only in 1 John–2 John, but “pseudochrists” (translated “false messiahs”) in Mt 24:24 and Mk 13:22, and Paul’s “lawless one” in 2 Thes 2:3, are similar figures. Many antichrists: Matthew, Mark, and Revelation seem to indicate a collectivity of persons, here related to the false teachers.1
The Gospel from John begins with a poetic proclamation of Logos becoming flesh in Jesus.
* [1:1] In the beginning: also the first words of the Old Testament (Gn 1:1). Was: this verb is used three times with different meanings in this verse: existence, relationship, and predication. The Word (Greek logos): this term combines God’s dynamic, creative word (Genesis), personified preexistent Wisdom as the instrument of God’s creative activity (Proverbs), and the ultimate intelligibility of reality (Hellenistic philosophy). With God: the Greek preposition here connotes communication with another. Was God: lack of a definite article with “God” in Greek signifies predication rather than identification.2
Cindy Costanzo shares a reminder of God’s unending love and grace for each of us at the end of the year and a beginning of a New Year.
Don Schwager quotes “The first-fruits of the Gospels”, by Origen of Alexandria (185-254 AD).
"I think that John's Gospel, which you have enjoined us to examine to the best of our ability, is the first-fruits of the Gospels. It speaks of him whose descent is traced and begins from him who is without a genealogy... The greater and more perfect expressions concerning Jesus are reserved for the one who leaned on Jesus' breast. For none of the other Gospels manifested his divinity as fully as John when he presented him saying, 'I am the light of the world' (John 8:42), 'I am the way and the truth and the life' (John 14:6), 'I am the resurrection' (John 11:25), 'I am the door' (John 10:9), 'I am the good shepherd' (John 10:11)... We might dare say then that the Gospels are the first-fruits of all Scripture but that the first-fruits of the Gospels is that according to John whose meaning no one can understand who has not leaned on Jesus' breast or received Mary from Jesus to be his mother also." (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1.21–23)3
The Word Among Us Meditation on John 1:1-18 comments that today’s Gospel contains many statements about Jesus that can sound abstract and a little mysterious. He is the bearer of “grace and truth” (John 1:14), the light shining “in the darkness” (1:5), and the one through whom we receive life (1:12). But far from being abstract, these words don’t describe something God does in a vacuum. They describe what Jesus wants to do for each of us.
God is not far away! He dwells with you and he wants to reveal himself to you in your everyday circumstances. So as you look toward 2019, spend some time asking him where you most need to see his glory in your life. Surrender those areas to him. Ask him how he wants to show you his grace and his truth in those situations in the coming year.4
Friar Jude Winkler points us to the teachers of “docetism” as specific opponents of Jesus identified in the First Letter of John. Poetically, the Word was “towards” God always separate yet always falling more in Love. Friar Jude speaks about the Word became “sarx” in our created reality and here “pitched His tent among us”. He is full of grace and truth in the Hebrew words associated with Covenant fullness.
André H. Roosma dwells especially on the two character-traits of YaHUaH that we encounter most often in the Bible. That is the combination of the two Hebrew words חסד - chesed and אמת - ’emet; translated as “lovingkindness” and faithfulness or as grace and truth.
And what is so wonderful about the Bible in its unity, in the New Testament we encounter this couple as well. In the first chapter of his Gospel, Yahu-chanan (John) wrote about Jesus / Yeshu‘ah:
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the Only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth..Yahu-chanan (John) 1: 14
One of the remarkable character traits of Jesus / Yeshu‘ah was that He was full of grace and truth. By His entire Being and through all of His life and ministry He radiated this.5
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, observes that within each of us is a deep desire for union and intimacy with God, with our truest self, and with all of Creation. Because life is hard, and we’re wired for survival, we develop coping mechanisms that separate us from each other and God. Thankfully, God is patient and has many ways to reach us. Jesus is one of the clearest, most visible images of God’s love. His teaching and example model for us what it means to be both human and divine—at the same time. He dismantles our preconceived ideas about who and where God is and is not.
Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace. —Augustine of Hippo (354-430) [1][1] Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, 10.27. This translation is taken from the Office of Readings on St. Augustine’s feast day (August 28). See http://www.liturgies.net/saints/augustine/readings.htm .6
As a year ends, our contemplation of ancient understanding of God and our contemporary experience of desire for union and intimacy sets the stage for reconciliation of the past and optimism for love in the future.
References
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(n.d.). 1 John chapter 2 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved December 31, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/1john/2
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(n.d.). John, chapter 1 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved December 31, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/1
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(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved December 31, 2018, from https://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
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(2015, July 10). Hallelu-YaH - The Character of God: graceful and true. Retrieved December 31, 2018, from http://www.hallelu-yah.nl/graceful-and-true.html
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(2017, December 30). 2018 Daily Meditations - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved December 31, 2018, from https://cac.org/2018-daily-meditations/
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