Dec 25: In the Beginning was the Word

Jacopo Torriti: The Creation of the World
Upper Basilica, San Francesco, Assisi, c. 1290

Mass of the Nativity of our Lord during the Day

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 into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people (NRSV, Jn 1:1-4).


Lord God, how many times as a youth did I follow along in my missal the opening verses of John’s gospel as the priest recited them at the end of Mass after the blessing? How many times did I just read them, surely well over a thousand, without ever really paying any attention?

I cannot remember the precise occasion but there came a moment when suddenly it all became clear, or at least clearer. What the priest recited in Latin quietly, I had indeed followed along in English so many hundreds of times but, on a certain occasion, I realized that I had actually heard it all many, many other times. In fact, as I focused my attention, as I turned inward upon myself, I became aware that what these verses say was in fact heard at every single moment from the very beginning. The truths that John lays out in the opening verses of his gospel are actually defining elements of my life. They are central to who I am, central to the life of every human being.

What I came to understand, Lord, was that, as you created the universe through your only begotten Son, your Word spoken, once and for all, so also you created me. In response to this same eternally spoken Word heard in my mother’s womb, I was enabled, in the power of the Spirit, in a manner beyond language and reasoning, to say “yes.” I thus accepted for myself that life which is your own and which has become for me, and all who are human, the light of all peoples. Your Word continues to speak to me at every moment challenging me to grow in your life. When I sin and turn away from you, your Word never abandons me but, always pressing in upon me, challenges me to repent and accept forgiveness.

How wonderful, Lord, that your Word through whom everything is created, through whom I have been and continued to be created, that this same Word, your only begotten Son, has become one of us. The Word has become flesh and lived among us. Father, you not only share your life with us through your Word; your Word, without surrendering his divinity, has taken upon himself a physical body and become a human being.

Help us all, Lord, to lead lives worthy of your great love for us and the destiny to which you call us.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.