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 to be through Him, and without Him nothing came to be. What came to be through Him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

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

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

And the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.

John 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.’"

From His fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace, because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed Him.

The Word

Before Vatican II’s reform of the liturgy, the gospel reading – the Prologue of John’s Gospel – was read at the end of the Mass. It was something like a "gospel of blessing." Something of the old tradition is retained when the reading is assigned at the last day of the year. We ask blessings for ourselves with the magnificent hymn of the Incarnate Word who came to dwell among us – which Christmas is all about.

Unlike the Synoptic gospels, the Fourth Gospel traces the origin of Jesus of Nazareth "in the beginning," in the sphere of the divine. There, "turned toward" God, and "what God was" was the Word – ho logos in Greek. There has been a lot of discussion about the meaning and provenance, and background in history of the Logos. The expression can be found throughout the religious literature of antiquity, in the Greek-Hellenistic world, and later in the various Gnostic systems. But the probable background to it is the Wisdom of Israel. In Jewish thought, the Logos was closely associated with Wisdom. Over the centuries, Wisdom had been personified. She existed with God even before the world was created, and she was God’s agent in creation (Prv 8:22-23; Sir 24:9). But while Wisdom was not an entity outside of God, the Johannine Logos is a separate "person," who would "become flesh," a human being. Jesus of Nazareth was the preexistent Logos and would be conscious of "being from above" and "sent by the Father."

SOURCE: "365 Days with the Lord," ST PAULS, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 895-9701; Fax 895-7328; E-mail: publishing@stpauls.ph; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.