The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to contemplate the effect of the Incarnation on our relationship to people we encounter on our journey.
Grace on the path
The reading from the First Letter of John contains a warning against Antichrists.
* [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
Psalm 96 praises God Who Comes in Judgement.
* [Psalm 96] A hymn inviting all humanity to praise the glories of Israel’s God (Ps 96:1–3), who is the sole God (Ps 96:4–6). To the just ruler of all belongs worship (Ps 96:7–10); even inanimate creation is to offer praise (Ps 96:11–13). This Psalm has numerous verbal and thematic contacts with Is 40–55, as does Ps 98. Another version of the Psalm is 1 Chr 16:23–33.2
At the beginning of the Gospel of John we hear the Word became flesh.
* [1:1–18] The prologue states the main themes of the gospel: life, light, truth, the world, testimony, and the preexistence of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Logos, who reveals God the Father. In origin, it was probably an early Christian hymn. Its closest parallel is in other christological hymns, Col 1:15–20 and Phil 2:6–11. Its core (Jn 1:1–5, 10–11, 14) is poetic in structure, with short phrases linked by “staircase parallelism,” in which the last word of one phrase becomes the first word of the next. Prose inserts (at least Jn 1:6–8, 15) deal with John the Baptist.3
Jay Carney comments that the “antichrists” have been with us for 2,000 years; Christian communities were as divided in John’s time as they are today; the subversion of truth and circulation of lies are not unique to our own social media age. Jesus may be the “light of the human race” and “only-begotten Son,” and yet “the world did not know him” and “his own people did not accept him.”
I welcome the first truth of the Incarnation, namely that God meets me where I am. This second truth – that I often reject this God trying to meet me where I am – is distinctly more uncomfortable. John reminds me, though, that I am not on my own; God doesn’t stand over and beyond me, waiting to judge if and how I will respond. Rather, God’s Spirit is constantly at work in our lives, “grace in place of grace,” guiding us toward acts of love, truth, peace, and justice. May we never grow complacent in the face of the powers of darkness so evident our world and in our lives. But may we also never forget that “a light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”4
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)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on John 1:1-18 notes that for many of us, 2020 was hard. We faced a worldwide pandemic, racial unrest, economic instability, and any number of personal highs and lows. Take a cue from today’s Gospel and try going back to the beginning (John 1:1-18).
So let’s go back to the beginning by working our way through the first verses of today’s Gospel. “In the beginning was the Word, . . . and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Jesus is God. Before anything began, he existed in the perfect harmony of the Trinity. And he still does today. What’s more, he made you for that eternity, and he’s calling you to have a share in it.6
Friar Jude Winkler shares how the heresy of Docetism connects to Greek thought concerning god. The poetry and prose of the prologue to the Gospel of John connects the Word becoming flesh to the Hebrew Testament words chesed and emet as Divine characteristics. Friar Jude discusses the meanings of “grace upon grace” in the text today.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, does not believe that the lifestyle of the Missionaries of Charity answers all questions or that they are holier than many other Christians. Yet there is a radical and utterly clear gift of God that is revealed through them. He even dared to ask one of the leaders about one of the most common criticisms of Mother Teresa: “Why did Mother not speak out against social injustice? Why did she not point out the evil systems and evil people that are chewing up the poor? Why did she not risk some of her moral ‘capital’ to call the world, and even the church, to much-needed reform?”
The answer was calm, immediate, and firsthand. Mother Teresa felt that if she took sides, or played the firebrand, that she could not be what Jesus had told her to be—love to and for all. She said that if she started correcting and pointing out “sinners” she could no longer be an instrument of love and reconciliation for them. Humiliated and defensive people do not change. Like her patron Thérèse of Lisieux, “her vocation in the church was to be love.” She knew that her primary message had to be her life itself, not words or arguments or accusations. She had found that “third something” that is always beyond the calculating and dualistic mind.7
The Incarnation is our touchstone for living with God among Us informing our loving actions toward others.
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