In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
The Prologue to John’s Gospel
We see the sublime beauty of the Nativity in many places during Advent and Christmas—in the liturgy, in our daily prayer, in the many manger scenes we see—so it is easy to contemplate the tenderness of Mary and Joseph adoring Jesus in the humble manger. Soon enough we will celebrate the Presentation of the Lord, when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the Temple in faithful obedience to the law (February 2nd).
Both of these scenes from Scripture reveal how Mary and Joseph carefully tended to their belief, faith, and trust in God.
While it might be easy to take our faith for granted during the Christmas season, these important moments in the liturgical calendar should reveal how we must tend to our own faith always. We must treasure it, guard it, and foster it, lest we do take it for granted and its light grows dim, like the failing lamps of the ten foolish virgins in Jesus’ parable who brought no oil to keep their lamps burning through the night (Mt. 25:1-13).
In her wisdom, Holy Mother Church draws us to her liturgical seasons each year so that, by our sacramental life and by our faithful prayers, we might refill our lamps and keep our faith shining.
Furthermore, I think there is, underlying this faith, a kind of duty that comes with the liturgical seasons. We must be ready to hold out our faith as a light to others and to give witness to it. This is the natural result of a tended, fostered faith. It is a fruitful, shining, magnetic faith that draws others, as Jesus described in the Sermon on the Mount:
“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.”
Matthew 5:14
But each year, Christmas comes and Christmas goes and we might find ourselves simply going through the motions. It should be more than just something we do every year. It should be a golden opportunity to foster our faith and prepare ourselves to carry Christ’s light into the world around us.
In fact, this time of year is a kind of wake-up call that we as Christians should sense; how we experience it is a reflection of our own faith. At this time, we might ask ourselves: Do I contemplate this season? Do I tend to my faith like I should? Am I a brighter light because of this season?
I recently heard a priest say in a homily, “In order to imitate Jesus, we must know Him ourselves.” Have I allowed the beauty of the Advent and Christmas seasons to teach me about Jesus? Am I closer to Him for having experienced it?
In this time between the birth of Our Lord and the Presentation, there is a simple way to contemplate Our Lord: the Prologue to John’s Gospel (often called the Last Gospel). It hardly takes more than a few minutes to read the powerful and poetic opening words of this Gospel, and yet they profoundly reinforce our belief in Who God is. These words are a preface to the account of Jesus Christ’s life on earth, praising His Divinity and eternity.
Church Fathers and countless theologians have expressed how these verses from St. John carry a crucial message for our understanding of Jesus Christ as the Light of the World. In fact, probably more has been written about these verses than almost any other passage in Scripture. The Church has always given special importance to this first part of John’s Gospel; for centuries, it was read at the end of Mass for instruction and meditation, and the Last Gospel is still read as a part of the concluding rites in the Tridentine Mass.
The opening words of John’s Gospel are the same as the opening words of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. John takes us back to the beginning, “not just the beginning of Christ’s life on earth but the absolute beginning, that is, eternity” (The Navarre Bible Commentaries).
The idea that Jesus Christ—Who is God—is the basis of our faith seems obvious, and yet we might overlook its significance. This is why we must take care to nurture, protect, and tend to our faith—because it is no less than the life of Christ in our souls.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:4-5
As Christians, we are Christ-bearers in a world that desperately needs Christ. Darkness is in our world because of sin. Yet we hear in this Prologue to John’s Gospel that the light of Christ overcomes the darkness. What an amazing truth to ponder! Amazing, too, that He has called us to bear His light to others.
Consider reading and contemplating these sublime words from John’s Gospel to help you grow closer to Christ in the coming days of the new year:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light.
The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. (John bore witness to him, and cried, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, for he was before me.’”) And from his fulness have we all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.
John 1:1-18
