31ST DECEMBER 2020
THURSDAY - SEVENTH DAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE
OF NATIVITY.
1 JOHN 2:18-21
PSALM 96:1-2.11-13
JOHN 1:1-18
Today's Gospel passage begins by saying, " In the beginning was the word and the word was with God, and the word was God. "These words are used by the writer of the Gospel as a
way of setting up a foundation of faith and to convince us to maintain that faith. In different aspects of our lives, we all have beginnings that can be referred to.
And they are referred to in relation to the present so that we can understand the present. For example, if someone has achieved a higher level of education, it means that there is a beginning that started as a foundation to that higher level of education. All our different vocations in life all have a beginning that we can refer to and make people understand what we do.
In this Gospel passage, John , the writer wants us to believe and understand that all the things that Jesus did have their foundation on the fact that as the word of God, Jesus has or had always been there, and that is where the authority of Jesus comes from. If John mentions that the Word of God came to shine over darkness it is because the Word was there in the beginning of creation when darkness ruled. And if the Word came to take away darkness then it
means that the Word of God came to create a new because the word already had created in the first place.
Do we have beginnings that we can refer to ,to give authority to what we are doing now? When Jesus, the Word of God meets Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, the sick and the hungry and brings them to light, then it shows that he has a beginning which gives him authority
to do so.
Beginnings are important. They set the pace for what is to come. They give us a clue of what is to happen. Beginnings also make us consider endings and one cannot consider beginnings without thinking of endings, and since we have seen the beginning of the Word of God who became flesh and dwelt amongst us, how is this beginning related to the ending of the Gospel of John and the life of Jesus?
John ends his Gospel in chapter 21:25 by saying that Jesus did many things that have not been written but what has been written is meant to make us believe and believing in the Gospel of John is a verb, that is, a doing word. So the beginning of the Word being with God and taking our flesh was meant to make us believe
Today marks the beginning of the last day of the year 2020 which had it's first day, its beginning. How will the beginning of this year shape our belief, our attitude, our work, our thoughts, our witness to the light and our belief in God taking on our humanity in the year that will begin tomorrow?
Fr. Silferius - Our Lady of The Rosary Parish, Ridgeways.
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