DOM. II NAVIDAD (A)
Jn 1,1-18
It is unlikely that this text came from the pen of a single author. Rather, it is a liturgical hymn elaborated over time by the community. But a mystical community, in which all members lived an intimate union with God that they expressed in the liturgy.
I will try to explain what the hymn meant, not what God or the Logos is in itself. This nuance is very important. To express what God is, we do not have concepts, let alone words. But what it says gives us a clue as to what they thought.
The encompassing idea of the entire story is the intimate interconnectedness of the human and the divine. This is the experience in which all mystics of all religions and all times coincide. It is about the relationship of man with God who is the foundation of his own being.
In the beginning. The very word with which Genesis begins. The incarnation will be the culmination of creation. In the beginning, when God creates the heavens and the earth, the Word already existed. The imperfect tense indicates the duration of an action. The word did not begin, because it was already there. When all was passing from non-being to being, the Word eternally remained in being.
There already existed the Word, and the Word was with God and God was the Word. Three phrases with the same structure. Constructed with the verb “eimi” and linked with the conjunction “kai”. The three formed by the essential elements of a sentence: subject, verb, and complement. The verb is the same; in Spanish it is doubled into three: Existed, was, was. Beginning the sentence with the last word of the previous one. With this it acquires incredible cohesion and force.
Logos is a term already used by Homer (intense narrative that hypnotizes) and Heraclitus (what remains despite everything changing), but the meaning given here has no parallel in biblical texts or profane literature. It is an original concept. That’s why it’s so difficult to grasp what it wants to tell us. From an intellectual point of view, it is impossible to understand it. Only after a mystical experience will it be possible to understand it.
Logos, Word, Speech, Project expresses the highest plan of God regarding creation. God works through his Word. But the word is an expression of an idea. The idea, the plan that God had was first. Once God has the idea, he pronounces the word and makes the idea a reality. God pours himself out on the Word and does not reserve anything; that is why what was God was the Word.
“**Together with God**” (pros ton Theon) = poured out over God. It indicates both nearness and distinction. In intimate union by dynamic relationship, not by identification. The third sentence is not easy to understand. It could be: **what was God, that was the Word;** and also: **A divine being was the plan.** Neither like the Jews nor like the Greeks. That’s why he tells us that it is neither one nor two.
**It contained life, and the life was the light of man.** Life comes before light. Illumination comes precisely because Life has arrived. Genesis says that Light was first. The idea that Life is prior to light is key to understanding the Gospel of John.
The world did not recognize her. Her own people did not welcome her. For the AT, sin was to disobey God. For John, it is to not recognize Jesus. It is not to be understood in the Greek intellectual sense, but in the Semitic sense. Knowledge that entails an attitude of fidelity.
To as many as received him, he gave power to become children of God. This is a resounding and extravagant affirmation. God is always Father, but being a son depends on each human being. None of the ideas of son serve to understand what John wants to say. Faith in Jesus enables us to act as God, to make God present, to be children.
If you believe in your name It is never about accepting theoretical truths. For the Bible, what matters is the person. Having faith is trusting the person; it is living that the other is for you and you for the other. We should join two words: trust in, and fidelity to…
The Word became flesh. “Flesh” is no longer the opposite of the Spirit, but its ally. Flesh was the lowest aspect of human creation, but it was also what made the Spirit possible. Flesh is what is common to all human beings; in that lowest aspect, God is incarnated.
Brother Marcos
English version translated with AI