Gospel Reflection for the Second Sunday of Christmas January 2nd 2022

By Brian Maher OMI

John 1:1-5, 9-14

My father was an eternal romantic. On December 31^st each year he wanted all of us to hold hands, count down the seconds till midnight, sing Auld Lang Syne, toast in the New Year, shout to neighbours over garden walls and telephone family and friends.

My mother, on the other hand, was ever the practical woman. “Bah! Humbug!”, she’d say, “…when you wake up in the morning there will be absolutely no difference except a number changing on the calendar.”

Both tried valiantly, for the sake of the other, to give and take. My mother held hands and sang Auld Lang Syne – without a lot of enthusiasm it must be said! My father – perhaps a bit grudgingly – tempered his enthusiasm and went off to bed about twelve thirty.

Every year I think, with a certain amount of nostalgia, about that annual tension and wonder which of them had it right?

In truth, both did.

Yes, my mother was correct; As far as time is concerned there is no difference between one day and another, but if we’re not careful that can lead to Martin Heidegger’s “beings unto death” philosophy, which becomes rather morbid.

And Yes, my father was correct; there is a need, deep within us, for symbols and key-moments to help us give meaning to our lives – birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, New Year, Feast Days, and so many other personal, family, and cultural moments we remember as somehow ‘different’ and therefore important. They don’t all have to be ‘happy’ either. Moments of sadness, trauma and disaster are equally important in shaping the meaning we give to life.

The Gospels, all four of them, share in this need we all have to find and celebrate the key-moments of life.

After the trauma of Jesus’ death on the cross and the joy of the resurrection two days later, the first Christians needed to find in his life key-moments when the reality of who he was became evident.

The Gospel of Mark, the earliest written Gospel, begins with the Baptism of Jesus. Mark finds in the Baptism of Jesus that first ‘moment’ when we saw him as he truly was: “You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

However, as time passed, those first followers of Jesus said to themselves, “Jesus was thirty when he was baptised. Surely, if we look, we will find earlier ‘moments’ in his life when God revealed him as his Son. The next two Gospels, Matthew and Luke, written about the same time, go further back and discover that right from his birth, and before it to his conception, the true meaning of his life was being revealed to us. The Christmas stories of Matthew and Luke point us to the birth of Jesus as the time when his life in this world began.

More years passed, and those who were still pondering the incredible mystery and magnificence of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection, came to realise that the only thing which could truly give meaning to what happened on Easter Sunday was that Jesus himself was/is God.

The opening words of John’s Gospel, and our Gospel today, is when the early Church made that huge, incredible leap of faith to be able to say, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…”  

“In the beginning …”, not at his baptism or his birth or even his conception; even before the prophets and Moses and Abraham and Adam and Eve….

“In the beginning” – the beginning of time itself – ….was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God….. and then the truly awesome part…..”and the Word became flesh, and lived among us, and we saw his glory….”

Suddenly, in these words, it all seems to come together and make sense. The death and resurrection of Jesus, his baptism, his healings and teachings, his birth and conception, all of the Old Testament …everything, absolutely everything, goes back to who our God is, to the very life of God, and that life is LOVE… nothing more, nothing less, just Love – endless, patient, gentle, forgiving, tender, LOVE.

It is a love captured in Rublev’s icon of the Trinity – that circular movement of unity in difference, humble, content, eternal.

It is a love that seeks nothing other than to share itself with us, and it does…. “the Word became flesh, and lived among us…”  Love itself came to live with us.

Theology can be made very complicated and in some ways that is necessary to ensure that our relationship with God grows and develops in a truthful and reflective way.

But at its heart the message of the Gospel is wonderfully simple. It has been understood through the ages by those with no education or wealth or status in life. Everyone who has loved or been loved, everyone who is open to love or tries to love has encountered God, because God is LOVE!

It is todays Gospel:

“In the beginning was the Word (love),

 And the Word (love) was with God.

 And the Word (love) was God…..

….The Word (love) became flesh and lived among us….

….The Word (Jesus, Love) died, rose from the dead and continues to live among us…

….And we see his glory……”

Every day, in every event, in everything we do….in everything that happened to us in 2021 and in everything that will happen to us in 2022 we have seen and will see the Glory of God…..if we want to and try to….

Happy New Year.

Brian