The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary for the Feast of Saint John invite contemplation of our experience of the Incarnate Word in our lives.
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| The beginning |
The reading from the First Letter of John declares the Word of Life as experienced by the author.
* [1:1–4] There is a striking parallel to the prologue of the gospel of John (Jn 1:1–18), but the emphasis here is not on the preexistent Word but rather on the apostles’ witness to the incarnation of life by their experience of the historical Jesus. He is the Word of life (1 Jn 1:1; cf. Jn 1:4), the eternal life that was with the Father and was made visible (1 Jn 1:2; cf. Jn 1:14), and was heard, seen, looked upon, and touched by the apostles. The purpose of their teaching is to share that life, called fellowship…with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ, with those who receive their witness (1 Jn 1:3; Jn 1:14, 16).1
Psalm 97 praises the glory of God’s Reign.
* [Psalm 97] The hymn begins with God appearing in a storm, a traditional picture of some ancient Near Eastern gods (Ps 97:1–6); cf. Ps 18:8–16; Mi 1:3–4; Heb 3:3–15. Israel rejoices in the overthrowing of idol worshipers and their gods (Ps 97:7–9) and the rewarding of the faithful righteous (Ps 97:10–12).2
The Gospel of John recounts finding the empty tomb after the Resurrection of Jesus.
* [20:1–10] The story of the empty tomb is found in both the Matthean and the Lucan traditions; John’s version seems to be a fusion of the two.3
Tom Purcell notes that John starts his gospel (Chapter 1) with the words “In the beginning.” His first epistle also commences with similar words today – “What was from the beginning.” This construct harkens back to Genesis 1 – “In the beginning.”.. Each beginning is an opportunity. A beginning is something new, or a repeat of something we have done before. But if we think of each recurring event as a new beginning (is that redundant?), we have an opportunity to improve from our last “beginning.” He cites a wonderful movie from 1993 titled “Groundhog Day.”
I think in each of our many beginnings we have a gift from God to try to get it better this time around. I think each day, each encounter, each moment is a gift from which we can learn to be more faithful in loving God and God’s creation, or more selfish in putting ourselves first. Each re-start is an opportunity to reflect on what we have done, and what we could do, and what we didn’t do. In each moment we have a choice to move closer to God by following the example of Jesus, or to move farther away by focusing on ourselves.4
Don Schwager quotes “The Word of Life was seen and touched,” by Severus of Antioch (488-538 AD).
"Given that this same John also said, 'No one has ever seen God' (John 1:18, 1 John 1:4:12), how can he assure us that the living Word of Life has been seen and touched? It is clear that it was in his incarnate and human form that he was visible and touchable. What was not true of him by nature became true of him in that way, for he is one and the same indivisible Word, both visible and invisible, and without diminishing in either respect he became touchable in both his divine-human nature. For he worked his miracles in his divinity and suffered for us in his humanity." (excerpt from CATENA)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on 1 John 1:1-4 comments that John’s efforts at evangelization focused on the events of Jesus life. He also makes it a point to get to the reason behind each and every thing he witnessed Jesus doing: love. Everything, from John’s calling on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, right up to Pentecost Sunday, pointed to God’s abiding love.
He didn’t just see them with his eyes or touch them with his hands; he felt them with his heart. And that’s what inspired him to proclaim the gospel. As an evangelist, John wanted everyone who heard his message to understand that they too are the disciple whom Jesus loves (John 20:2).
What have you seen and heard? Like John, you too are a beloved disciple. And that means that you too can proclaim God’s love to the people around you. It’s not a difficult task. Just find a way to speak from your heart—and let the Holy Spirit do the rest.6
Friar Jude Winkler compares and contrasts the beginning of 1 John and John 1 and the attention of the letter to combatting the teaching of Gnostics and Docetists. Love wins the race to the tomb, yet Love yields to the authority of Peter. Friar Jude reminds us that the symbolic beloved disciple is our place in the Gospel called to fall in love with Jesus.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, cites Beatrice Bruteau (1930–2014), a brilliant scholar with a wide-ranging interest in mathematics, religion, science, and philosophy, who writes that we do not pretend to understand the Incarnation in an analytical abstract way. We rather understand it in an experiential way. We know what it means because we resonate with it in our own being. Whatever meaning it has for us comes from the deepest level of our sense of our own reality.
In the case of the cosmos, we can say that God as Creator is incarnate as self-creating universe, including self-creating creatures within that universe, such as, for instance, ourselves as human beings. [Or, as Fr Richard likes to say, God creates things that create themselves.] Creativity itself is what’s evolving in the cosmos, and . . . we are in a position to realize ourselves as incarnate divine creativity. This has two effects. It makes the whole thing intensely meaningful. . . . We are part of this, creative contributors to this. And this is the other effect: we bear some responsibility. We have to take our part in the work. We, for instance, are now in a position to do something about all the suffering. . . . We are agents within the system and can have causal effects on other parts of the system. We have intelligence, we have empathy and capacity to feel for others and to care about them, we even have insight into the Ground [or Spirit] present in every being and calling for an appropriate form of absolute respect.7
The Evangelist invites us to ponder our experience of Incarnation while contemplating that the Word becomes flesh.
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