January 5^th 2020. Second Sunday of Christmas

GOSPEL: John 1:1-18

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini broadcast on Vatican Radio

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

GOSPEL: John 1:1-18

In the beginning was the Word:
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things came to be,
not one thing had its being but through him.
All that came to be had life in him
and that life was the light of men,
a light that shines in the dark,
a light that darkness could not overpower.

A man came, sent by God.
His name was John.
He came as a witness,
as a witness to speak for the light,
so that everyone might believe through him.
He was not the light,
only a witness to speak for the light.

The Word was the true light
that enlightens all men;
and he was coming into the world.
He was in the world
that had its being through him,
and the world did not know him.
He came to his own domain
and his own people did not accept him.
But to all who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God,
to all who believe in the name of him
who was born not out of human stock
or urge of the flesh
or will of man
but of God himself.
The Word was made flesh, he lived among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory that is his
as the only Son of the Father,
full of grace and truth.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . In the first reading from the book of Sirach, we hear how the people of Israel are distinguished by the fact that the word of God has been given to them. Unlike other peoples, the wisdom of God was present in his chosen people through the Scriptures, the law and the prophets. In the Gospel, however, the Word of God comes to be present among us in a much more dramatic form. He takes on flesh and becomes one of us! Jesus is more than his words. His identity is that of a beloved Son of a loving Father. And he comes to regenerate us, to transform us into children of the same Father. He comes among us to show us that we should not distrust God or be suspicious of him. Jesus manifests to us that we are truly loved and cherished by the Father. He pours out the mercy of God upon us in baptism and the other sacraments and gives us new life. The season of Christmas is the feast of the presence of God among us, a God who says that we can begin again.

The book of Sirach describes how the wisdom of God comes to live among his people. This is an intellectual understanding of how the people of Israel have possession of God’s word among them. In John’s Gospel, we read how the Word actually becomes flesh! This is no longer an intellectual or spiritual understanding of the presence of God’s word among his people. The second person of the Trinity takes on our flesh!

The first reading for the second Sunday of Christmas is a passage from Sirach (the book of Wisdom) which describes wisdom. The term "wisdom" in Hebrew is one of the translations of the word Torah, a word that refers to the law received by Moses. Israel has this treasure: it knows the decrees of the Lord. The book of Sirach - which seeks to build a bridge between Jewish and Hellenistic culture - states that the Israelites are distinguished by the gift of this wisdom that guides them in life. All this takes on a new light in the Gospel of this liturgy, which once again offers us the opportunity to reflect on John's prologue. The same Wisdom of God is now described as a person, a person who is really God and comes to live among his people. He does what was foretold in Sirach, but in a surprising way - with his incarnation "he became flesh and came to live among us". In the Greek original, the phrase reads: "He pitched his tent among us", exactly as the book of Sirach says, but in the Gospel it is no longer just an intellectual understanding: he has become human flesh! He is someone who lives and moves concretely among us. This "Wisdom which became flesh" has its own "glory", a specific way of being: "We have contemplated his glory, glory as of the only-begotten Son who comes from the Father".

Jesus cannot be reduced to his words. His identity is that of a son who comes from the Father and seeks to draw us into the family of the Trinity

In Christ what we receive is not an erudition or a body of teachings. Jesus cannot be reduced to his words. What saves and enlightens us is his life, his way of existing. The wonderful and unique things He said are only the result of who He is. It is someone who "was with God and was God." Jesus in his human flesh lived every single act as a son who comes from the Father. Christ does not do the things he does just because he is an exceptional person: he does them because he lives as a Son who comes from the Father!

Like Jesus, our origin is in the Father and we will return to him. But what Jesus has by his very nature, we receive by mercy in the regenerative event of baptism. God has come down among us to show us his mercy, to create us anew us by his love.

We too, even if we do not know it, come from the providence of God. We come from the Father and we will return to him. By the grace of the sacraments, the preaching that touched our hearts, the faith that we live, the hope that lives in our hearts and the charity we exercise, we too live as children of God, but in order to persevere it is essential to be connected with our origin. Jesus says in the same Gospel of John: "Unless one is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God". That "from above" can also be translated "again": born again. What Christ has by nature - God from God, light from light, true God from true God - we receive in Baptism, which is the forgiveness of sins, which is an experience of regeneration. It is mercy that makes us born again in God and allows us to live as his children. The Wisdom that came to live among us did not come to make beautiful theories: he came to love us. And to reveal that the Father is loving and merciful, while previously we were afraid of him and suspicious of his intentions. We are still in the season of the celebration of the mystery of Christmas, which is the mystery of God's tangibility. It is He who touched us. In our poverty, in our sins. And each of us can start again. Always.