The Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas
Lectionary: 204
Lectionary: 204
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.
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 PsalmPS 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!
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!
AlleluiaJN 1:14A, 12A
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us.
To those who accepted him
he gave power to become the children of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us.
To those who accepted him
he gave power to become the children of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelJN 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.
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.
Meditation: "The Word became flesh and dwelt
among us"
Why does John the Evangelist begin his Gospel
account 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 Scriptures 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 (deutero-canonical) 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" (deutero-canonical 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:
.
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.”
Daily Quote from the early church fathers: The first-fruits of the Gospels,
by Origen of Alexandria (185-254
AD)
"I think that John's Gospel, which you have
enjoined us to examine to the best of our ability, is the first-fruits of the
Gospels. It speaks of him whose descent is traced and begins from him who is
without a genealogy... The greater and more perfect expressions concerning
Jesus are reserved for the one who leaned on Jesus' breast. For none of the
other Gospels manifested his divinity as fully as John when he presented him
saying, 'I am the light of the world' (John 8:42), 'I am the way and the truth
and the life' (John 14:6), 'I am the resurrection' (John 11:25), 'I am the
door' (John 10:9), 'I am the good shepherd' (John 10:11)... We might dare say
then that the Gospels are the first-fruits of all Scripture but that the
first-fruits of the Gospels is that according to John whose meaning no one can
understand who has not leaned on Jesus' breast or received Mary from Jesus to
be his mother also." (excerpt
from COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1.21–23)
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31, JOHN 1:1-18
Seventh Day in the Octave of the Lord
(1 John 2:18-21; Psalm 96)
Seventh Day in the Octave of the Lord
(1 John 2:18-21; Psalm 96)
KEY VERSE: "And the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" (v 14).
TO KNOW: By the time John wrote his gospel, gentiles had converted to the Church in significant numbers. The Jewish idea of the coming of the Messiah to save the world was foreign to them. How was John to present Christianity to the Greek world? They saw the "Logos" ("Word") as the creating and sustaining power of God who 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 (sarx in Greek). John began his gospel with a mystical hymn to Christ that summed up the whole Gospel: Jesus, the incarnate Word brought light and life into a world of darkness and death. 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.
TO LOVE: Make a New Year's resolution to bring God's love and mercy to others.
TO SERVE: Lord God, thank you for speaking your greatest Word of love to us ̶ Jesus.
Optional Memorial of Sylvester I, pope
Pope Sylvester I succeeded St. Miltiades as Pope in 314. Since Sylvester 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 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, which became the center of power of the Eastern Roman Empire, later the Byzantine Empire. Were the document genuine, 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.
Thursday 31 December 2015
St
Silvester I. 1 John 2:18-21. Let heaven and earth exult in joy!—Ps 95(96):1-2,
11-13. John 1:1-18.
‘And the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us…’
These
famous words in John’s Gospel go to the very heart of Christianity and the
Christmas message. Christianity is not a religion perse, if religion is
primarily about human response to God; rather it is the opposite: God’s
response to humanity in and through the person of Jesus Christ. John’s Prologue
(1:1-18) captures this divine encounter and the moment of Incarnation. God in
Jesus out of love for us took our human nature to bring us salvation.
The
question of why God chose to respond to us is at the heart of the Christmas
message. Christmas reminds us that God cares about our world and he and us is
not indifferent to our plights and our needs.
Today,
let us allow ‘the Word made flesh to dwell among us’ and pray for the grace to
enter into his love and share his life. Enabled by his grace and buoyed by his
love we can see him in others, especially the poor, needy, marginalised and
oppressed, and share the same love and communion with them. So be it!
MINUTE MEDITATIONS
|
I Am Ready
|
O my great God, you can do all things and I can do nothing! If you
wish to help me, I am ready. I promise to obey you! Accomplish your most
adorable will in me and by me. –Blessed Marie de l’Incarnation
December
31
St. Sylvester I
(d. 335)
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.
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.
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.
LECTIO DIVINA:
JOHN 1,1-18
Lectio:
Thursday, December 31, 2015
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.
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 sayspeople , 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.
• 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 sayspeople , 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?
• 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)
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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