DECEMBER 31, 2012 : THE SEVENTH DAY IN THE OCTAVE OF CHRISTMAS

The Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas 
Lectionary: 204

Reading 1 1 Jn 2:18-21

Children, it is the last hour;
and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming,
so now many antichrists have appeared.
Thus we know this is the last hour.
They went out from us, but they were not really of our number;
if they had been, they would have remained with us.
Their desertion shows that none of them was of our number.
But you have the anointing that comes from the Holy One,
and you all have knowledge.
I write to you not because you do not know the truth
but because you do, and because every lie is alien to the truth.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 96:1-2, 11-12, 13

R. (11a) Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice!
Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all you lands.
Sing to the LORD; bless his name;
announce his salvation, day after day.
R. Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice!
Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;
let the sea and what fills it resound;
let the plains be joyful and all that is in them!
Then shall all the trees of the forest exult before the LORD.
R. Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice!
The LORD comes,
he comes to rule the earth.
He shall rule the world with justice
and the peoples with his constancy.
R. Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice!

Gospel Jn 1:1-18

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 came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.

A man named John was sent from God.
He came for testimony, to testify to the light,
so that all might believe through him.
He was not the light,
but came to testify to the light.
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world,
and the world came to be through him,
but the world did not know him.
He came to what was his own,
but his own people did not accept him.

But to those who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God,
to those who believe in his name,
who were born not by natural generation
nor by human choice nor by a man's decision
but of God.

And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father's only-begotten Son,
full of grace and truth.

John testified to him and cried out, saying,
"This was he of whom I said,
'The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me
because he existed before me.'"
From his fullness we have all received,
grace in place of grace,
because while the law was given through Moses,
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God.
The only-begotten Son, God, who is at the Father's side,
has revealed him.

www.usccb.org

Meditation:"The Word became flesh and dwelt among us"

Why does John the Evangelist begin his gospel with a description of the Word of God which began the creation of the universe and humankind in the first book of Genesis? The “word of God” was a common expression among the Jews. God’s word in the Old Testament is an active, creative, and dynamic word. “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made” (Psalm 33:6). “He sends forth his commands to the earth; his word runs swiftly” (Psalm 147:15). “Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer which breaks the rock in pieces” (Jeremiah 23:29)? The writer of the Book of Wisdom addresses God as the one who “made all things by your word” (Wisdom 9:1). God’s word is also equated with his wisdom. “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth” (Proverbs 3:19).The Book of Wisdom describes “wisdom” as God’s eternal, creative, and illuminating power. Both “word” and “wisdom” are seen as one and the same. “For while gentle silence enveloped all things, and night in its swift course was now half gone, your all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne, into the midst of the land that was doomed, a stern warrior carrying the sharp sword of your authentic command” (Book of Wisdom 18:14-16).
John describes Jesus as God’s creative, life-giving and light-giving word that has come to earth in human form. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Jesus is the wisdom and power of God which created the world and sustains it who assumed a human nature in order to accomplish our salvation in it. Jesus became truly man while remaining truly God. “What he was, he remained, and what he was not he assumed” (from an early church antiphon for morning prayer). Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God who, without ceasing to be God and Lord, became a man and our brother. From the time of the Apostles the Christian faith has insisted on the incarnation of God’s Son “who has come in the flesh” (1 John 4:2) 
. 
Gregory of Nyssa, one of the great early church fathers (330-395 AD) wrote: Sick, our nature demanded to be healed; fallen, to be raised up; dead, to rise again.  We had lost the possession of the good; it was necessary for it to be given back to us. Closed in darkness, it was necessary to bring us the light; captives, we awaited a Savior; prisoners, help; slaves, a liberator.  Are these things minor or insignificant?  Did they not move God to descend to human nature and visit it, since humanity was in so miserable and unhappy a state?
Christians never cease proclaiming anew the wonder of the Incarnation. The Son of God assumed a human nature in order to accomplish our salvation in it. The Son of God ...worked with human hands; he thought with a human mind. He acted with a human will, and with a human heart he loved.  Born of the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us, like to us in all things except sin (Gaudium et Spes).
If we are going to behold the glory of God we will do it through Jesus Christ. Jesus became the partaker of our humanity so we could be partakers of his divinity (2 Peter 1:4). God's purpose for us, even from the beginning of his creation, is that we would be fully united with Him. When Jesus comes God is made known as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. By our being united in Jesus, God becomes our Father and we become his sons and daughters. Do you thank the Father for sending his only begotten Son to redeem you and to share with you his glory?
"Almighty God and Father of light, your eternal Word leaped down from heaven in the silent watches of the night. Open our hearts to receive his life and increase our vision with the rising of dawn, that our lives may be filled with his glory and his peace.”

www.dailyscripture.net

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31
NEW YEARS' EVE
Seventh Day of the Octave of Christmas
JOHN 1:1-18
(1 John 2:18-21; Psalm 96)
KEY VERSE: "And the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" (v 14).
READING: By the time John wrote his gospel, Greeks had converted to the Church in significant numbers. The Jewish idea of the coming of the Messiah to save the world was foreign to the Greeks. How was John to present Christianity to the Greek world? TheGreeks saw the "Logos" ("Word") as the creating and sustaining power of God that made the world and kept it in order. So John wrote that Jesus was the `Logos' who had come down to earth, the word made flesh. John began his gospel with a mystical hymn to Christwhich summed up the whole Gospel: Jesus the incarnate Word brought light and life into a world of darkness and sin. Jesus did not become the "Word" at Bethlehem when he became flesh; he was God's Word from the beginning. Through his life, death and resurrection, Jesus revealed the fullness of God's enduring love. Just as God dwelled with Israel in a Tabernacle during their wilderness journey, Jesus was the "tabernacle" of God's presence through the incarnation. Since God is spirit, no one has ever seen God. Only God's son, the Second Person of the Trinity, can make him known. John the Baptist gave testimony to Jesus, God's eternal Word full of grace, truth and love. Whoever is reborn through God's grace in baptism will share eternal life with Jesus. 
REFLECTING: Make a New Year's resolution to bring God's love to others.
PRAYING: Lord God, thank you for speaking your greatest Word of love to us ̶ Jesus.

Memorial of Sylvester I, pope

Pope Sylvester I succeeded St. Miltiades as Pope in 314. Since he himself was unable to be present at the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325, he sent delegates of his own Roman clergy to represent him. The story of his having baptized the Roman Emperor Constantine is pure fiction, as evidence shows that the emperor received this rite near Nicomedia at the hands of Eusebius, bishop of that city. The Donation of Constantine to Pope Sylvester is a fraudulent Roman imperial edict. It was supposedly issued to Sylvester for curing him of leprosy, granting the pope and his successors sovereignty and spiritual authority over Rome and the entire Western Roman Empire. Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to Constantinople (the former name of Istanbul in Turkey) in 330 AD. Constantinople became the center of power of the Eastern Roman Empire, and later the Byzantine Empire. If the document had beengenuine, the popes would have ruled as emperors in the West. A succession of Western Emperors who were not popes after Constantine suggests that the document was false. Father Time, representing the passing of the old year, has its roots in the feast of St. Sylvester. In Northern Europe, "Sylvester Night" is celebrated on New Year's Eve.
 www.daily-word-of-life.com

Let heaven and earth exult in joy!

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God.
Is there a more magnificent sentence in our language than that with which John opens his gospel? All the agencies through which God has spoken to humankind across the ages (the created world itself, the Old Testament patriarchs and prophets, men and women of conspicuous wisdom and holiness, the sacred scriptures and charismatic preachers) converge and find their ultimate expression in the mission and ministry of the one who alone is the Word of God incarnate.

‘By the revelation of the mystery of the Father and his love, Jesus Christ fully reveals humanity to itself and makes our supreme calling clear’ (Gaudium et spes, 22). Let our prayer today be that of St Augustine: ‘O God, ever the same, let me know myself, let me know you!’‘Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life’ (Proverbs 4:23).

www.churchresources.info

December 31
St. John Francis Regis
(1597-1640)

St.John Francis Regis

Born into a family of some wealth, John Francis was so impressed by his Jesuit educators that he himself wished to enter the Society of Jesus. He did so at age 18. Despite his rigorous academic schedule he spent many hours in chapel, often to the dismay of fellow seminarians who were concerned about his health. Following his ordination to the priesthood, he undertook missionary work in various French towns. While the formal sermons of the day tended toward the poetic, his discourses were plain. But they revealed the fervor within him and attracted people of all classes. Father Regis especially made himself available to the poor. Many mornings were spent in the confessional or at the altar celebrating Mass; afternoons were reserved for visits to prisons and hospitals.

The Bishop of Viviers, observing the success of Father Regis in communicating with people, sought to draw on his many gifts, especially needed during the prolonged civil and religious strife then rampant throughout France. With many prelates absent and priests negligent, the people had been deprived of the sacraments for 20 years or more. Various forms of Protestantism were thriving in some cases while a general indifference toward religion was evident in other instances. For three years Father Regis traveled throughout the diocese, conducting missions in advance of a visit by the bishop. He succeeded in converting many people and in bringing many others back to religious observances.

Though Father Regis longed to work as a missionary among the North American Indians in Canada, he was to live out his days working for the Lord in the wildest and most desolate part of his native France. There he encountered rigorous winters, snowdrifts and other deprivations. Meanwhile, he continued preaching missions and earned a reputation as a saint. One man, entering the town of Saint-Andé, came upon a large crowd in front of a church and was told that people were waiting for "the saint" who was coming to preach a mission.

The last four years of his life were spent preaching and in organizing social services, especially for prisoners, the sick and the poor. In the autumn of 1640, Father Regis sensed that his days were coming to a conclusion. He settled some of his affairs and prepared for the end by continuing to do what he did so well: speaking to the people about the God who loved them. On December 31, he spent most of the day with his eyes on the crucifix. That evening, he died. His final words were: "Into thy hands I commend my spirit."

He was canonized in 1737.

Comment:

John longed to travel to the New World and become a missionary to the Native Americans, but he was called instead to work among his own compatriots. Unlike many famous preachers, he isn’t remembered for golden-tongued oratory. What people who listened to him heard was his own fervent faith, and it had a powerful effect on them. We can recall homilists who impressed us for the same reason. More importantly for us, we can also remember ordinary people, neighbors and friends, whose faith and goodness touched us and brought us to deeper faith. That is the calling most of us must follow.

December 31
St. Sylvester I
(d. 335)

When you think of this pope, you think of the Edict of Milan, the emergence of the Church from the catacombs, the building of the great basilicas, Saint John Lateran, Saint Peter’s and others, the Council of Nicaea and other critical events. But for the most part, these events were planned or brought about by Emperor Constantine.

A great store of legends has grown up around the man who was pope at this most important time, but very little can be established historically. We know for sure that his papacy lasted from 314 until his death in 335. Reading between the lines of history, we are assured that only a very strong and wise man could have preserved the essential independence of the Church in the face of the overpowering figure of the Emperor Constantine. The bishops in general remained loyal to the Holy See and at times expressed apologies to Sylvester for undertaking important ecclesiastical projects at the urging of Constantine.

Comment:

It takes deep humility and courage in the face of criticism for a leader to stand aside and let events take their course, when asserting one’s authority would only lead to useless tension and strife. Sylvester teaches a valuable lesson for Church leaders, politicians, parents and others in authority.

Quote:

To emphasize the continuity of Holy Orders, the recent Roman breviary in its biographies of popes ends with important statistics. On the feast of Saint Sylvester it recounts: "He presided at seven December ordinations at which he created 42 priests, 25 deacons and 65 bishops for various sees." The Holy Father is indeed the heart of the Church's sacramental system, an essential element of its unity.

www.americancatholic.org

LECTIO: JOHN 1,1-18

 

Lectio: 

 Monday, December 31, 2012  

Christmas Time

1) Opening prayer

Loving Father, 
You gave us your Son Jesus Christ
and let him share our poverty.
He brought us grace upon grace,
for all that comes from you is a free gift.
Accept our thanks for the moments
when we accepted your gifts
and shared them with one another. 
Accept our thanks for the times
we listened attentively to your Son’s words
and put them into practice. 
Help us go forward with hope and joy
with joy and mutual encouragement.
with the companion in life you have given us,
Jesus Christ our Lord.

2) Gospel Reading – John 1, 1-18

In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things came into being, not one thing came into being except through him. What has come into being in him was life, life that was the light of men; and light shines in darkness, and darkness could not overpower it. A man came, sent by God. His name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness to the light, so that everyone might believe through him. He was not the light, he was to bear witness to the light. The Word was the real light that gives light to everyone; he was coming into the world. He was in the world that had come into being through him, and the world did not recognise him. He came to his own and his own people did not accept him. But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believed in his name who were born not from human stock or human desire or human will but from God himself. The Word became flesh, he lived among us, and we saw his glory, the glory that he has from the Father as only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. John witnesses to him. He proclaims: 'This is the one of whom I said: He who comes after me has passed ahead of me because he existed before me.' Indeed, from his fullness we have, all of us, received -- one gift replacing another, for the Law was given through Moses, grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; it is the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.

3) Reflection

• The Prologue is the first thing which one sees in opening the Gospel of John. But it was the last one to be written. It is the final summary, placed at the beginning. In it, John describes the way of the Word of God. It was at the side of God, before the creation, and through him all things were created, Everything which exists is an expression of the Word of God. As it happens with the Wisdom of God, (Pr 8, 22-31), in the same way also the Word wishes to get closer to us and becomes flesh in Jesus. It comes in our midst, and carries out its mission and returned to God. Jesus is this Word of God. Everything that it says and does is communication which reveals the Father to us.
• In saying: “In the beginning was the Word”, John recalls the first phrase of the Bible which says: “In the beginning God created heaven and earth” (Gen 1, 1). God created all things by means of his Word. “He speaks and everything is made” (Ps 33, 9; 148, 5). All creatures are an expression of the Word of God. This living Word of God, present in all things, shines in darkness. Darkness tries to overpower it, but it could not succeed. The search for God which is always new, is reborn in the human heart. Nobody succeeds in covering it. We cannot bear to live without God for a long time!
• John the Baptist comes to help people to discover and to relish this luminous and consoling presence of the Word of God in life. The witness of John the Baptism has been very important, so much so that many people thought that he was the Christ (Messiah) (Acts 19, 3; Jn 1, 20). This is why the Prologue clarifies saying: “John was not the light!. He has come to bear witness to the light!” 
• Thus as the Word of God manifests itself in nature, in creation, so also it is manifested in the “world”, that is in the history of humanity, particularly, in the history of the People of God. But the “world” does not recognize, does not receive the Word. “He came to his own and his own people did not accept him”. Here when he says people , John wants to indicate the system of the empire as well as that of the religion of the time, both of them closed up in themselves and, because of this, incapable to recognize the Good News (Gospel), the luminous presence of the Word of God.
• But the persons who open themselves to accept the Word, become sons and daughters of God. The person becomes son or daughter of God not because of his/her own merits, neither because of belonging to the race of Israel, but because of the simple fact of having trust and believing that God in His goodness, accepts and receives us. The Word of God penetrates within the person and makes the person feel accepted as a son, as a daughter of God. This is the power of the grace of God.
• God does not want to remain far away from us. Because of this, His Word, gets closer and becomes present in our midst in the Person of Jesus. The Prologue literally says: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us”. In ancient times, at the time of Exodus, in the desert, God lived in a tent among the people (Ex 25, 8). Now, the tent in which God dwells with us is Jesus, “filled with grace and truth”. Jesus comes to reveal who is this our God, present in everything, from the beginning of creation.

4) Personal questions

• Everything that exists is an expression of the Word of God, a revelation of his presence. Am I sufficiently contemplative to be able to receive and experience this universal presence of the Word of God?
• What does it mean for me to be called son of God?

5) Concluding Prayer

The Lord comes,
he is coming to judge the earth; 
he will judge the world with saving justice, 
and the nations with constancy. (Ps 96,13)

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