St. John testifies to the life, light, truth and Jesus’ pre-existence

December 31, 2015

The Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas

Saint of the Day: Saint Sylvester I, pope (335)

Reading 1

1 John 2:18-21

18Children, 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. 19They 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.

20But you have the anointing that comes from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. 21I 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

Psalms 96:1-2, 11-12, 13

R. (11a) Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice!

1Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all you lands. 2Sing to the LORD; bless His name; announce His salvation, day after day.

R. Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice!

11Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice; let the sea and what fills it resound; 12let 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!

13The 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!

Alleluia John 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.

Gospel 

John 1:1-18

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.[1][2][3] 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came to be through Him, and without Him nothing came to be. What came to be 4through Him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; 5the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.[4]

6A man named John was sent from God.[5] 7He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through Him.[6] 8He was not the light, but came to testify to the light. 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10He was in the world, and the world came to be through Him, but the world did not know Him. 11He came to what was His own, but His own people did not accept Him.[7] 12But to those who did accept Him He gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in His name,[8] 13who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God.[9]

14And 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.[10]

15John 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.’”[11] 16From His fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace,[12] 17because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

18No one has ever seen God. The only-begotten Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed Him.[13]

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Notes on Readings:

[1] John 1:1-18 - The prologue states the main themes of the gospel: life, light, truth, the world, testimony, and the preexistence of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Logos, who reveals God the Father. In origin, it was probably an early Christian hymn. Its closest parallel is in other christological hymns, Colossians 1:15-20 and Philippians 2:6-11. Its core (John 1:1-5, 10-11, 14) is poetic in structure, with short phrases linked by "staircase parallelism," in which the last word of one phrase becomes the first word of the next. Prose inserts (at least John 1:6-8, 15) deal with John the Baptist.

[2] John 1:1 - In the beginning: also the first words of the Old Testament (Genesis 1:1). Was: this verb is used three times with different meanings in this verse: existence, relationship, and predication. The Word (Greek logos): this term combines God's dynamic, creative word (Genesis), personified preexistent Wisdom as the instrument of God's creative activity (Proverbs), and the ultimate intelligibility of reality (Hellenistic philosophy). With God: the Greek preposition here connotes communication with another. Was God: lack of a definite article with "God" in Greek signifies predication rather than identification.

[3] John 1:1 - What came to be: while the oldest manuscripts have no punctuation here, the corrector of Bodmer Papyrus P75, some manuscripts, and the Ante-Nicene Fathers take this phrase with what follows, as staircase parallelism. Connection with John 1:3 reflects fourth-century anti-Arianism.

[4] John 1:5 - The ethical dualism of light and darkness is paralleled in intertestamental literature and in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Overcome: "comprehend" is another possible translation, but compare with John 12:35; Wisdom 7:29-30.

[5] John 1:6 - John was sent just as Jesus was "sent" (John 4:34) in divine mission. Other references to John the Baptist in this gospel emphasize the differences between them and John's subordinate role.

[6] John 1:7 - Testimony: the testimony theme of John is introduced, which portrays Jesus as if on trial throughout His ministry. All testify to Jesus: John the Baptist, the Samaritan woman, scripture, his works, the crowds, the Spirit, and his disciples.

[7] John 1:11 - What was his own . . . his own people: first a neuter, literally, "his own property/possession" (probably = Israel), then a masculine, "his own people" (the Israelites).

[8] John 1:12-17 - The Christian community that has experienced the grace of God through forgiveness of sin and knowledge of Christ is armed against the evil one.

[9] John 1:13 - Believers in Jesus become children of God not through any of the three natural causes mentioned but through God who is the immediate cause of the new spiritual life. Were born: the Greek verb can mean "begotten" (by a male) or "born" (from a female or of parents). The variant "he who was begotten," asserting Jesus' virginal conception, is weakly attested in Old Latin and Syriac versions.

[10] John 1:14 - Flesh: the whole person, used probably against docetic tendencies (compare with 1 john 4:2; 1:7. Made his dwelling: literally, "pitched his tent/tabernacle." Compare with the tabernacle or tent of meeting that was the place of God's presence among his people (Exodus 25:8-9). The incarnate Word is the new mode of God's presence among His people. The Greek verb has the same consonants as the Aramaic word for God's presence (Shekinah). Glory: God's visible manifestation of majesty in power, which once filled the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34 and the temple (1 Kings 8;10-11, 27), is now centered in Jesus. Only Son: Greek, monogenes, but see the note on John 1:18. Grace and truth: these words may represent two Old Testament terms describing Yahweh in covenant relationship with Israel (compare with Exodus 34:6), thus God's "love" and "fidelity." The Word shares Yahweh's covenant qualities.

[11] John 1:15 - This verse, interrupting John 1:14, 16 seems drawn from John 1:30 .

[12] John 1:16 - Grace in place of grace: replacement of the Old Covenant with the New (compare with John 1:17). Other possible translations are "grace upon grace" (accumulation) and "grace for grace" (correspondence).

[13] John 1:18 - The only Son, God: while the vast majority of later textual witnesses have another reading, "the Son, the only one" or "the only Son," the translation above follows the best and earliest manuscripts, monogenes theos, but takes the first term to mean not just "Only One" but to include a filial relationship with the Father, as at Luke 9:38  ("only child") or ⇒ Hebrews 11:17  ("only son") and as translated at John 1:14. The Logos is thus "only Son" and God but not Father/God.