4.1.2004 The Second Sunday of Christmas
First Reading: Siracide 24, 1-4, 8-12
Psalm 147
Second Reading: Ephesians 1, 3-6, 15-18
Gospel Reading: John 1, 1-18
For this second Sunday of Christmas the readings are not easy. They reflect
deeply on the presence of God in humanity, a presence which became concrete
and visible through the incarnation of the Word. In the gospel reading John
says that "the Word" sets his tent among us and in the Apocrypha book
of Siracide: "my creator had me set up tent and said: place your tent in
Jacob and take Israel for an inheritance….I served in the holy tent before him".
The one who speaks here is Wisdom! It is easy for us to recognise in her the
Son of God, who incarnates the Wisdom of the Father, a Wisdom that becomes love
for his people and for all the earth. This wisdom that comes to man, is called
the Word by John the Evangelist: the term used in Italian is the Latin "Verbo",
for the translation into "parola" or in English "word" is
an over-simplification. The "Word" of God is an expression of all
the love He wishes to communicate to us and not only in the form of words, but
also and above all in expressions of life, since His communicating also becomes
communion. The term "Word" indicates all the desires and plans of
love that God wishes to activate in order to meet us, to save us, to bring us
joy.
John tells us, that the Word was in the beginning, that is, the basis of all
creation and all the events that regard us. The Father always has a plan of
love to be activated. His plans are never static, for He has to take into consideration
our freedom. God does not want us to do evil or to sin, that is not His plan.
However, we do go wrong and He must once more adapt His plan of love for all,
so that our wrong-doing is righted and another opportunity for love is created.
The Word is God's plan of love that gives form and meaning to all things and
particularly to our lives. Our lives become light when they are in line with
the Father's wishes. These wishes have to become concrete and clearly visible
to us, as we are only able to see that which is concrete and palpable. That
is why the Word became flesh, so that we could see, touch, meet, love and receive
him.
We are poor sinners, we are in darkness, we hold fast to our habits and comforts.
We can see that the Word of God in our midst overrides our plans and expects
us to change and hence we are tempted to turn away. We are not only tempted,
but we do frequently turn away. We put aside God's plan of love, we turn away
from the Word that became flesh, Jesus! He came even before we were willing
to stand by him.
He came, took on flesh and risked being rejected. There was rejection. And God's
plan of love once again flowed over us to transform that rejection into salvation.
We were saved by Jesus' offering of himself at the moment of that rejection.
We have seen his glory, the fullness of his love in death, a love that embraces
sinners, while condemning the sins.
He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. His coming, despite
rejection, was not in vain. Some received him and they have become children
of God. They have become part of the Father's plan of love. The children of
God! Are we also the children of God? When we receive Jesus we become children
of God, we bear within us his image, his being of love, his light and his peace.
As children of God, we can, together with him, reveal God's countenance. "
No-one has ever seen God; His only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he
has made Him known". St Paul repeats this in other words and prays that
we may receive the spirit of wisdom and revelation and enter consciously into
God's plan that has already been realized by Jesus and continues to be realized
in we who are his children!
We praise the wisdom of God, we praise it and desire it and receive it while
it is transforming the world, we receive it so that it may begin it's work of
renovation with us.