WORD MADE FLESH

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON DECEMBER 31, 2006

John 1:14 "And the word became flesh and dwelt among us."

Here we are on New Year's Eve - and as we anticipate the beginning of a new year the church presents in our gospel today the ultimate beginning. As St. John says: " in the beginning was the word".

This gospel today - St. John 1:1-18 - was formally the gospel always read at the morning Mass on Christmas Day, because of its central declaration "that the word is made flesh". It is rather theological, and it is hard for some of us to understand every nuance of St. John. So when all the revisions happened 30 years ago, the liturgical committee in New York decided that it was far too difficult for all the people who only come on Christmas Day to understand - so they provided a nice gospel about shepherds and sheep and a baby - and we faithful Christians get the theological gospel the following Sunday!

This gospel is what Christmas is all about - particularly with this central declaration of John 1:14. This is always at the heart of the Christian gospel and of Catholic theology. Some of you will remember the traditional custom called the Last Gospel, which usually happened at the end of High Mass. The celebrant would go to the gospel end of the altar and all the acolytes would stand while the congregation sang a hymn. He would read this gospel and at John 1:14 they all genuflected. It was more than just a quaint ceremony. What the priest was doing as he read this gospel at the very end of the Mass was proclaiming that Christ had become incarnate at Christmas, and continues to be incarnate in the Eucharist. Every time we come to celebrate the Eucharist Christ once again becomes flesh in the world for our salvation.

I remember receiving a wonderful Christmas card many years ago in which it said: The altar is another Bethlehem, the Eucharist is a continual Christmas.

The genuflection at the words: “And the word became flesh and dwelt amongst us”is significant because it is a natural response for this amazing fact. It signifies both our worship of Jesus present amongst us, and the humility we all should feel at this great fact. It is the same when we genuflect to the tabernacle when we come to church and at communion time - because in the tabernacle Jesus is present as much as if we were at the manger on the first Christmas day.

At All Saints we continue this acknowledgement of the incarnation on Sundays and festivals every time we say the Nicene Creed. We genuflect at the words "And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man". This verse in the Creed is known as the incarnatus, from the Latin for incarnate. This custom is hardly seen nowadays. It used to be compulsory in the Roman Catholic Church and when they revised their liturgy it was only set down for Christmas day and the Feast of Annunciation. And I guess that because they hardly ever see it they probably have

stopped doing it.

I remember the first time I went to an Anglo Catholic parish and saw this ceremony, I was amazed that all these people, like a well drilled marines, all genuflected as one. I figured that maybe there was a little lever in each pew that forced them! I was so impressed that I returned to that church the following week to see if they did it again! And I never stopped going to that church for years.

I loved the ceremony not only because it was so well impressive, but because I soon realized that what it declared was at the heart of our religion. That the incarnation is so important it should be acknowledged as the central doctrine of our faith.

This gospel, John 1:l-18, is truly the Christmas Story. It is quite theological - yet every line confirms to us what Christmas is about, and somehow even now relates to many modern aspects of the Christmas story. Today, as we continue to celebrate Christmas with all the joy we can muster, this gospel provides much food for thought.

"In the beginning was the word”, John says, “and the word was with God, and the word was God."

No mucking around with St. John! He is quite adamant. In the beginning there was Jesus. John establishes at the very beginning of his gospel that Jesus always existed - because he is the second person of the Trinity, the one through whom the world and all things were made. The only son of God.

Jesus is not just a good man, not just a prophet, not even just someone endowed with divine spirit. The baby in the manger we worship is none other than God himself. All the talk of everyone believing the same things, that we are all going the same way, have the same understanding of God is dismissed by St. John for what it is: pure talk and speculation.

The other mono-theistic religions, Judaism and Islam, are left behind by St. John's great declaration “And the word was God." Ours is the only mono-theistic religion that proclaims its teacher and leader is also its creator.

St. John uses the Greek word Logos. A very interesting word - it was used in Greek philosophy to describe the divine spirit through whom wisdom and all good things are illuminated.

He uses that word so that all may understand that Jesus is the fulfillment of all those religions, and the expression personally of all those philosophies. He goes on in v 4-9 to use images of light and darkness.

He goes on in verses 4-9 to use images of light and darkness which were also familiar in Greek philosophy, and in most religions of the time. "The light shines in the darkness", he says, “and the darkness comprehended it not.” So to verse 9: "the true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world." This is a very profound declaration. If St. John was declaring the uniqueness of Christ in verses 1-2, he now declares that Jesus is also the light that has always enlightened the world.

From the beginning the divine light has shone:

+ in laws

+ in morals

+ in ethics

+ in reason

+ in conscience

+ and in goodness.

Long before Christ appeared he was illuminating this world in all the good things that we understand. This light has always urged the human race onward in evolution. But this light was never perfect before Jesus. Now this light is fully and perfectly expressed in Jesus.

All the hopes and aspirations that humans might have in their hearts to be able to create a perfect world have been now been fulfilled by the one who is perfect. He comes to us and makes us his children. There has always only been one divine light - and everyone has always been enlightened by it.

But, of course, in every age it was never recognized as such. Even the chosen people the Jews did not recognize him. For all their closeness to God's purpose, for all the preparation God has bestowed upon them, St. John says: "His own people received him not." Why? The same reason that other human beings did not receive him. Human pride. The Jews, for all the preparation they had gone through, thought they knew it all. And thought they had it all. Like others, they saw no need for the savior when he came. It is the perpetual problem of the human race.

And now we celebrate the fact that God understood that, and sent the divine light, his only son, in flesh and blood - so that we might see him and recognize him, and therefore be enlightened.

Consider: if the divine light was recognized for what it is, its presence would always be welcome. But so often is not.

Even in Christian countries the light can be overshadowed by darkness. As St. John says, "the darkness comprehendeth it not." So the light had to be more than light, it had to become the Word. The world not only needed to see the light - it had to hear. Hence it is the word of God.

"The word was made flesh".

everyone can now see and hear this divine light. The true light that was coming into the world becomes our self fulfillment. That is what everyone hopes from the divine light - that we will be fulfilled. But the Word requires also - and firstly - our self surrender. We cannot be fulfilled unless first we surrender to the Word, and then we are fully enlightened.

So we come to verse 13, in which St. John says that when we believe in him, when we are enlightened, when we see the Word and take him to ourselves, we become children of God. And in words directly related to, and mirroring the virgin birth, he says: “who were not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”.

Yes - just as the virgin birth declared that God is responsible for this child who is Christ - so God is the one responsible for that light which shines in our lives and makes us his own children.

Having said all this St. John gives the great declaration that this light is now revealed: And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us.