A reading from the first letter of saint John (2:18-21)
Children, this is the final hour;
And as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming,
now many Antichrists have already come;
from this we know that it is the final hour.
They have gone from among us,
but they did not belong to us.
If they had belonged to us, they would have stayed with us.
But this was to show
that none of them belonged to us.
But you have been anointed by the Holy One,
and all have knowledge.
I have written to you
not because you do not know the truth,
but because you do know it,
and because no lie comes from the truth.
Once again addressing the community as ‘children’ (paidia), John speaks of the ‘last hour’. It is marked, as expected, by the coming of the ‘antichrist’ (antichristos), or of several antichrists. The word is used only in 1 and 2 John. This is not a reference to ‘false Messiahs’, as in Mark 13:21-22. It is made clear that these individuals, who were once members of the community, are denying that Jesus is the Christ. They have deserted the community. Those remaining faithful, on the other hand, are reminded that they have, when they became Christians, received an anointing (chrisma) from the ‘holy one’ (hagios). They are in possession of the ‘truth’ (aletheia).
Psalm 96 (95) The whole of the cosmos rejoices at the coming of the Lord.
The beginning of the holy gospel according to John (1:1-18)
In the beginning was the Word:
the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things came into being,
not one thing came into being except through him.
What has come into being in him was life,
life that was the light of all people;
and light shines in darkness,
and darkness could not overpower it.
There was a man sent by God.
His name was John.
He came as a witness,
to bear witness to the light,
so that everyone might believe through him.
He was not the light,
he was to bear witness to the light.
The true light
that gives light to everyone
was coming into the world.
He was in the world
and the world came into being through him,
and the world did not know him.
He came to what was his own
and 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 believed in his name,
who were born not from blood,
or from the will of the flesh,
or from human will
but from God himself.
The Word became flesh,
and lived among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of an only-begotten Son of the Father,
full of grace and truth.
John witnesses to him and cried out, saying,
‘This is the one of whom I said:
He who comes after me
has passed ahead of me
because he was before me.’
Indeed, from his fullness
we have all received,
grace upon grace,
for the Law was given through Moses,
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God;
it is the only-begotten Son,
who is close to the Father’s heart,
who has made him known.
On the final day of the calendar year, as we approach the end of the octave of Christmas, we hear again the gospel of the Day Mass of Christmas Day. ‘The Word (logos)’, who was ‘in the beginning (arche)’, has been heard as ‘truth’ (aletheia), has been seen as ‘light’ (phos), has been touched as ‘flesh’ (sarx). The Word is full of ‘grace’ (charis – hesed) and ‘truth’ (aletheia – ’emet), the essential qualities of the Father. The Word has given the power to become ‘children of God’ (tekna theou). He has brought ‘grace upon grace’. He has ‘made known’ (exegeisthai) the God whom ‘no one has ever seen’.
Examine in prayer the central ideas of this passage.
Explore the links between this prologue and the opening verses of 1 John.