~by Susi Pittman

Art work by Liz Lemon Swindle

Did you know that St. John was the one to bring us the true understanding of the WORD?

He makes clear in his Gospel narrative that WORD represents Jesus’ eternal existence with the Father, enjoying the divine nature yet distinct from the Father.

St. John, the disciple “whom Jesus loved” wrote the last Gospel of the New Testament. He was certainly someone who was very close to Jesus being the one to whom Jesus entrusted His Mother the Blessed Virgin Mary. John lived with her at Ephesus, remaining there until his death somewhere around the year 100 A.D.

The Catholic Church honors St. John at the end of the Latin Mass with the priest reciting the Last Gospel, affirming Jesus’ birth, divine nature and mission before all creation.

I cannot ever hear this without my very soul being humbled to its core. I reflect upon the GREAT and POWERFUL moment that Jesus the Christ, Son of God comes to earth with His promised redemption, being born into our humanity, embracing us as family.

In John 1:1-14, the disciple “whom Jesus loved” gives us the eternal and divine Person who became man in order to reveal God to us and to accomplish our redemption.

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 were made through Him, and without Him was made nothing that has been made. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. And the Light shines in the darkness; and the darkness grasped it not.

There was a man, one sent from God, whose name was John. This man came as a witness, to bear witness concerning the Light, that all might believe through him. He was not himself the Light, but was to bear witness to the Light. It was the true Light that enlightens every man who comes into the world.

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But to as many as received Him he gave the power of becoming sons of God; to those who believe in His name: Who were born not blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

AND THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH, AND DWELT AMONG US.

And we saw His glory—glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father—full of grace and of truth.

It is a MERRY CHRISTMAS Gospel and one that I wish for all of you!

May it be a source of Christmas meditation for you this coming week.

Susi Pittman is founder of CatholicStewardsofCreation.com and Owner-President of Twin Oaks Publishing; she is author of Animals in Heaven? Catholics Want to Know!; an advocate for the Florida Catholic Conference; a member of the St. Joseph’s Catholic Council of Women in Jacksonville, Florida; an Associate of the Sisters of St. Joseph, St. Augustine;a member of the Florida Publishers Association, Independent Book Publishers Association, the National Association of Professional Women, the ASPCA, the Humane Society of the United States and the National Audubon society.