John 1: 1-18

The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one. Everything was created through him; nothing – not one thing came into being without him.

What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out.

There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.

The Life-Light was the real thing: Every person entering Life he brings into Light.

He was in the world, the world was there through him, and yet the world didn’t even notice. He came to his own people, but they didn’t want him.

But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves.
These are the God-begotten, not blood-begotten, not flesh-begotten, not sex-begotten.

The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish.

John pointed him out and called, “This is the One! The One I told you was coming after me but in fact was ahead of me. He has always been ahead of me, has always had the first word.”

We all live off his generous bounty, gift after gift after gift. We got the basics from Moses, and then this exuberant giving and receiving, This endless knowing and understanding – all this came through Jesus, the Messiah.

No one has ever seen God, not so much as a glimpse. This one-of-a-kind God-Expression, who exists at the very heart of the Father, has made him plain as day.

Gospel Reflection

Christmas. The birth of Jesus. The Word became flesh and lived among us. Heaven and earth met. The light shone in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it. This is like a new creation story of light and darkness (Gen 1). Jesus the light of the world is introduced to us.

This magnificent passage provides a powerful opening to this gospel. It lays out the main themes of John’s gospel – life, light, truth, the world, testimony and the pre-existence of Jesus Christ. He is the Incarnate Logos or Word, who reveals God the Father to us.

Then comes the dramatic statement: “the Word became flesh”. The Word took on our human nature in all its fullness. He did not have, as some people believed, just the external appearance of a human but was “like us in all things”. And he lived right among us. The Greek term literally means he “pitched his tent or tabernacle” among us. Let us welcome him today.