the e-Testament
John 1: 1-5, 9-14
The Life-Light
The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word.
The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one.
Everything was created through him; nothing—not one thing!—came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out.
The Life-Light was the real thing: Every person entering Life he brings into Light.
He was in the world, the world was there through him, and yet the world didn’t even notice.
He came to his own people, but they didn’t want him.
But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said,
He made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves.
These are the God-begotten, not blood-begotten, not flesh-begotten, not sex-begotten.
The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.
Prayer
Lord Jesus
As we celebrate your birth, guide us to live by your Word.
Help us to find ways to bring your light to others.
Give hope and comfort to those who are suffering.
Shine in our hearts throughout the coming year,
And let us keep a child-like spark there every day.
Amen
Reflection
On Christmas Day, we celebrate the amazing miracle of the birth of Christ, of God becoming human for us. The Gospel reminds us that God was there in the very beginning, and that nothing and nobody could possibly exist without God.
This year especially, we are aware of the suffering of around us, with terrible images from Syria, and other places where lives are torn apart by war and terror. While we are trying to think of peace and joy, and of good will to everyone, we know there are many people of all ages who will be scared, hungry, homeless, or lonely.
But as Christians, we are people of hope, and we believe that at Christmas, the Word of God became a living human being. We have faith that the light he brought to us can’t be put out. This is a time when we make more effort to carry that light to others, doing what we can, however small, to brighten other people’s lives through acts of charity and kindness, by praying for others and keeping them in our thoughts.
At Christmas, we think especially of children, but the true spirit of Christmas can bring out the child in every one of us, taking away our weary and sometimes cynical outlook and letting us see the beauty and the ‘magic’ that is all around us, in our own hearts, in the people we know and in the strangers we don’t know.
Jesus said we need to become like little children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and Christmas gives us that opportunity, as long as we do our best to take the spirit of Christmas with us through the year.
Happy Christmas!
Clare Lewis
Salesian Communications Worker