02/01/2011 - 2nd. Sunday in Christmas Season - A
1Reading Ecc 24,1-4.8-12 Psalm 147 2Reading Eph 1,3-6.15-18 Gospel Jn 1,1-18
We continue to celebrate the birth of the Lord. The Readings help us to reflect
on this mystery that we never fully understand. However, it is a mystery that we
want to continue to celebrate to praise and bless the wisdom of God's love. This
is what the Book of Ecclesiasticus speaks about. God's wisdom says, "Make your
dwelling in Jacob, and your inheritance in Israel, your roots deeply among my chosen".
It is in the people of Israel that the Word is incarnated, that is the Word of God
Almighty. God lives in our history, he is not an idea, as
the religions discovered or invented by men. About this coming of God in our history,
st. John puts it at the beginning of his gospel. The Word who was in the beginning,
who is the foundation that all, was God The words of our language can not translate
all that the evangelist wants to tell us. The term "Verbum" he intends
the Word, or rather the contents of the Word which God wants to communicate to men,
to make them partakers of his life, that is of his love. God doesn't want only to
speak to us, but with the word he want to pass on his life to us, that is his ability
to love. And every time "was" is repeated, it doesn't mean to recount
a past event but a present event and future: we should translate: it was and still
is. He was and continues to be with God, and was and still is and always will be
light and life, and dwelt among us and with us still and will always be.
The truth of the mystery that the evangelist wants to be summarized in these first
few lines of his Gospel is witnessed by a man named John the Baptist. He preceded
the "light", the light that shines in the darkness, and that attracts
the eye and the attention of all men. If welcomed, it makes them "children
of God", changing one's life, a life that is part of the darkness, in a ray
of light, of which many can enjoy.
The Evangelist John, unlike Matthew and Luke, does not present us with Jesus as
a child. We, in fact, today we are dealing with a baby, but with him who died and
rose again. If we love the child because he is with us, risen. The feast that makes
us sensitive and capable of all goodness does not end with Epiphany, but continues
throughout the year: Jesus, the Son of Mary, is always with us. Also st. Paul reminds
us of this, he who enjoyed the fact that Christians have faith in Jesus Christ.
It is this faith that causes them to be in communion with each other and with him,
so their life shall never fall in the darkness or in discouragement or sadness typical
of those who do not know the meaning of their existence.
Let us be thankful for the mystery of the Incarnation: God with us, one of us, always
waiting for us. We enjoy and appreciate because he is the wisdom that makes us wise
in the midst of false teachers, keep us safe in trouble, keep us at peace in the
midst of the confusion that surrounds us, makes us happy in the midst of crazy,
sad and depressed situations. Let us be thankful and let us be ready to answer those
who ask us the reason of our happiness, why do we not complain, how come we do not
fear those who think they are big and powerful. We will answer that Jesus is God
with us, and that his life is not a thing of the past but a present reality: we
can rely on him to look at the future without fear!