Homily for the Second Sunday After The Nativity

God becoming one of us is truly amazing! After celebrating Christmas Day

and the feast of the Holy Family, this Sunday we can begin to unpack a bit

more what God becoming flesh really means for us. But it is truly a mystery –

something of which the human mind cannot fully plumb the depths. We can

understand something of it, but our limited human intelligence can never know

the fullness of the infinite God.

The Prologue to St John’s Gospel, as the reading we just heard is sometimes

called, begins a bit like the first chapter of Genesis. Genesis 1 reads: “In the

beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”. The Prologue begins before

the creation of the world: “In the beginning was the Word”. Then speed on a

bit and we get to: “All things were made through him, and without him was

not any thing made that was made.” In Genesis, it’s more implicit: God spoke,

and it happened. God’s Word was active. But creation is not just about the

making of the material universe, of stars and planets and space-dust. God

creates, not only matter, but also life. “In him was life, and the life was the

light of men”. Here is the promise of something much better than just material

objects.

Then, also, very compactly, the Prologue introduces us to the fact that there is

good and evil in the universe. But with God there is hope: “The light shines in

the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it”. Just as darkness is

powerless before light, so evil is powerless before the goodness of God.

And now a new layer of meaning and understanding. Yes, the light shines in

the darkness. Yes, that light is life and the “light of men”. But, people have a

choice. They can choose to receive the light or reject it. Some choose one,

some choose the other. “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his

name, he gave the right to become children of God”. This is through a new

birth, “not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of

God”. It is God’s doing. God adopting us through baptism, fulfilling His

blueprint for us. As St Paul said in the second reading, “In love he predestined

us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ”, as sons because the

Father sees His Son in us; we become other Christs. Yes, we should see Jesus

in everyone, but through baptism we’re dealing with a whole new reality.

St John the Evangelist, the Gospel writer, was one of Christ’s twelve apostles

(not to be confused with St John the Baptist). St John the Evangelist was called

by Christ to follow Him, and got to know Him over the three years of His

public mission. After the Ascension, he then grew in his knowledge and

experience of Christ during the time of his mission, spreading the Gospel and

reflecting on it as time went by. He was truly transformed by the experience.

At the end of his life, he wrote his Gospel, wanting to pass on to all future

generations what he experienced: “we have seen his glory, glory as of the Only

Begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth”. Yes, God gave us the

prophets, and that was truly the work of God’s grace. But now has come

something, a final revelation, that surpasses it all – “For from his fullness we

have all received, grace upon grace”. Just imagine the generosity of God’s

grace being heaped up, grace upon grace. “For the law was given through

Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” If you thought the

revelation given to Moses was something, wait until you see this – it will

completely blow your mind! “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten

God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” We could say that

the rest is history. St John, in this overview of his whole Gospel, is drawing the

reader in. You’ve got to hear about this!

All the Gospels contain a life-changing message. Someone once said that he

put his conversion down to reading St John’s Gospel. It’s only twenty-one

chapters, so you could perhaps read one chapter each Sunday at home, or split

it up into smaller chunks if you prefer. It truly will be an encounter with the

living God. And then you might have questions, which you can ask me to try

and explain, if you wish. Give it a try. You will find things that we don’t read

at Mass, simply because we can’t read every part of every Gospel over a three

year cycle. So some parts might be truly new. Give it a go and see what you

find. You might get to know Christ in a way that you have never known Him

before.

Curious about exploring things further?  If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk