04/01/2009 - 2nd. Sunday Christmas
Season - Year B
1st. Reading Sir 24,1-4.8-12 Psalm 147 2nd. Reading Eph 1,3-6.15-18 Gospel Jn
1,1-18
From today's Reading from the Book of Sirach, it is easy to understand that
it is speaking of the Lord Jesus! He is "the Wisdom", that is the
Word by which the Father wants to give us and make us know the secrets of his
love. St. John, in his Gospel, uses the terminology of "Verbum" to
transmit to us the same concept. These secrets are his "Wisdom" that
comes out from the mouth of God and dwells among the people of Israel.
In this day we continue to contemplate the crib that draws us because it shows
us the goodness and the mercy of God, of the omnipotent God, through that silent
infant who is in need of every thing. And the Readings of today want to help
us not to forget that that infant is a Word of God, even so, "the"
Word of God for all humanity and for all times. That infant reveals to the poor
and hides to the proud hearted the wisdom of God, that wisdom that is exalted
and admired by all the world, while it serves itself by a small people to come
close to us to offer us to God a sacrifice pleasing to him!
The opening of the Gospel according to John continues on the concept of the
Book of Sirach. The revealing Word of God is the foundation of all, of all creation,
and places all creation in the light of the Word that leads toward the Father.
All creatures are presented as the fruit of the Father's love to the Word who
is the one to bear in him this love and gives it back to the Father! Wherever
we turn to we find the signs of God's love, even so, of his eternal love. It
is sad in fact that the love of God, who became light and life of men, was not
recognized nor accepted by the world, that world that had all the possibility
to do it. Only a few welcomed him.
Among those few are we, we who rejoice in being sons and daughters of God! We
are so because the Son, whom we welcome, makes us partake in his being, especially
in being love! Because of this st. Paul writing to the Ephesians says that we
were chosen "to be holy and blameless in front of him in love". Love
is typical of God! This love is holy and nothing stop can stop it; it is the
characteristic of those who welcome Jesus, the distinctive of the Christians,
the fundamental attitude of our being and of our behavior. We can live the same
love of God because "from his fullness we have received: grace upon grace".
These revelations of God are not to remain empty words, but are to be translated
in new attitudes of our lives. Let us try to remain in that love that we have
found in our hearts these days in front of the child born to us, promising ourselves
what is necessary for us: a constant contact with the Holy Scriptures, a return
to the Sacraments and the participation in the common prayer of the Church.
This is the nourishment for the roots of our love and our capacity to love.
To persevere in love we need to come to know that we are loved, and enjoy the
love that comes to us from God in many ways! This is our commitment, the price
of our joy. Hence the beauty of this Christmas climate will remain always present,
and we shall be carriers of that joy that today is everywhere, but gone in a
week time, when all the decorations are taken away from our homes!
We are to spread around us the joy that come from the fact that "the Word
was made flesh and dwelt amongst us" at all cost! Passing on unto us this
truth, John the evangelist strengthens us and encourages our hope. The evil
that tries to let us down and take over our lives cannot win: the Lord of live,
of the universe, is with us with all his love for all of us, small and sinners.
And the Eucharist that we are celebrating in which we recall the coming into
the world of the eternal Word, proclaim to us again the resurrection of the
dead, therefore the final victory upon the enemy that scars all, but whom Jesus
came to cancel. He is raised from the death the one who came to die with us:
likewise he freed us from the fear of death. The wisdom of God is truly great
and unimaginable in which we are immersed by loving the child Jesus!
With st. Paul we bless God, the Father of our Lord Jesus the Christ, who blessed
us with every spiritual blessing in heaven in Christ. And we continue to give
thanks for the gift of faith in him, a faith he continues to give us and by
which he sustains us!