A happy and blessed New Year to you all! And thank you to everyone who helped make the Christmas services so special. But let us not think that with the ushering in of the New Year, Christmas is over. The secular world was already taking down its Christmas decorations on 26th December, but the Church reminds us quietly but firmly, Christmas has only just begun! Traditionally it runs all the way to the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord on 2nd February, more commonly known as Candlemas. And fittingly, on this Second Sunday of Christmas, the Church gives us once again the timeless Prologue to St John’s Gospel, (1:1-14) which we also heard proclaimed at Mass on Christmas Day.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” With these simple words, St John the Apostle and Evangelist takes our minds beyond time itself into the depths of eternity. Before there was a manger, before the universe was created, and before there was time, the Word already was. He is not a creature or a messenger, but God Himself.

“All things were made by Him, and without Him was made nothing that was made.” That includes you and me. Nothing exists apart from His Will – an uncomfortable truth for modern ears, because we like to think we’re in control of everything! But everything that exists does so because the Word wills it to exist. This does not mean He wills evil, because evil is not a ‘thing’. Evil is the lack of the good in the same way that darkness is the absence of light. St John continues, “The light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” Here, darkness is not merely the absence of light, but the rejection of it. “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” And that’s the irony of our modern times. We have so much knowledge and have made so much technological progress, and yet we understand far less. Why? Because God is essential to true understanding, and without faith, we are building on sand. St Augustine put it well: “Believe in order to understand.” Then knowledge can become wisdom.

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” This sentence changes everything. The Child in the manger at Bethlehem is no mere moral teacher or prophet. He is the Eternal Son, “consubstantial with the Father” as we say in the Creed. God has come to visit us in Person. And having assumed our human flesh, He will never abandon it.

With the New Year in front of us, the Word still speaks, the Light still shines, and the choice remains the same as it was in Bethlehem two thousand years ago. “As many as received Him, He gave the power to be made the sons of God.” Through grace, we are not merely forgiven our sins. We are made the adopted sons and daughters of God and share in the very life of God Himself. This is the foundation of any new beginning. So there remains just one question for each of us to ask ourselves: will I open my heart to receive Him?  

Fr Paul Gillham, IC