Letters of
Aquila and Priscilla
Volume 11 Issue 1 Reflections of Jun and Jean Uriarte Jan 2012
In the beginning was the Word
Jn 1:1
The Gospel of John opens with a majestic poem, a hymn that serves as a prologue, an introduction and a summary of the entire theology of the Gospel.
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 came to be through him,
And without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
And this life was the light of the human race;
The light shine in the darkness,
And the darkness has not overcome it.
He was in the world,
And the world came to be through him,
But the world did not know him.
He came to what was his own,
But his own people did not accept him.
And the Word became flesh
And made his dwelling among us,
And we saw his glory,
The glory as of the Father’s only Son,
Full of grace and truth.
(Jn 1:1-5,10-11,14)
The Gospel of John is the most different among the four gospels. The Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke are called the Synoptic Gospels because they present more or less similar point of view. The peculiarities of the Gospel of John include: the setting of Jesus’ public ministry is mostly in Jerusalem rather than in Galilee; the motif of the Kingdom of God prevalent in the Synoptics is mentioned only twice; the parables of the Synoptics are replaced by long discourses and dialogues; the period of Jesus’ public ministry in John covers 3 years compared to one year in the Synoptic Gospels; and in John, Jesus speaks explicitly of his divinity and his pre-existence.
The first verses of John’s prologue recall the Genesis account of creation, which start with the same three words, “In the beginning.” At the moment of creation, the Word already existed. Through the Word all things were created. The prologue describes what Fr. Raymond Brown calls the great cycle – the Son descends from heaven to our level, and ascends back to heaven bringing us up with him to the divine level. The prologue describes the Son in heaven and the descent. The rest of the Gospel describes the walking among us and the final ascent to the Father.
The great ancient philosopher, Aristotle, stated that there are three things that can convince men: the ethos, meaning the personal character of the speaker; the pathos, referring to persuasion from within; and the logos, meaning the proof. To the mind of the ancient Greek, the logos is the ultimate proof or the final word. In his gospel, John did not write, “In the beginning was the ethos” or “In the beginning was the pathos”. Instead he used the word logos and stated that the Logos became flesh, meaning that the ultimate Word became flesh. John reveals the identity of the Word in his Gospel and in Revelation: He wore a cloak that had been dipped in blood, and his name was called the Word of God…He has a name written on his cloak and on his thigh, “King of kings and Lord of Lords.” (Rev 19:13,16)
Our house in Quezon City has a spacious front lawn where we often play with our grandchildren. Near the front gate there are always a large number of small, harmless, black ants that scurry back and forth, unmindful of our presence. Sometimes we would point to some ants and tell our four-year old grandson, “Look, there is a baby ant! He is looking for his mommy ant. There is the mommy ant. And there is the daddy ant. They are running towards the baby ant. The baby ant is now happy.” And our grandson will repeat the same words and observe the ants as they continue to move around completely unmindful of our presence.
While reflecting on the words of John and recalling the black ants moving around in our front lawn, this thought occurred to me. Given the capacity of the ants, they have no way of knowing or understanding something as complex as a human being, even if he is just a small child playing with them like our grandson. But suppose I have the power to become an ant and still bring with me as much of the reality of a human being as would be possible. Would I be able to impart on the other ants the mystery of the human person? Would it be possible for ants to understand the human in ways that they could never have known before? I do not know. The chasm that separates ants from human beings is so huge that even if I were to become an ant, it is perhaps impossible for me to convey the concept of being human.
But the chasm that separates God from man is even much bigger. In fact, it is infinite. And so God has to become man in order to bridge this infinite gap, in order for man to understand even just a small part of this great mystery, so that man will have even just a simple appreciation of the majesty of the Divine. The hymn of John describes in elegant poetry how God has chosen to come across this infinite chasm to take on human flesh to give us a chance to glimpse deeper into the mystery of God, not through our own power, but because of the gift of Christ.
But the Incarnation remains and will continue to remain a great mystery that can be understood only through faith. For this reason, Albert Schweitzer wrote in The Quest of the Historical Jesus the following: “The Jesus of Nazareth who came forward publicly as the Messiah, who preached the ethic of the Kingdom of God, who founded the Kingdom of Heaven upon earth, and died to give his work its final consecration, never had any existence. He is a figure designed by rationalism, endowed with life by liberalism, and clothed by modern theology in an historical garb.” Schweitzer could not understand because he did not have faith.
When we were living in Bangkok, our apartment building was located beside Chao Phraya River. The condominium complex had a large swimming pool and well-tended garden located on the third floor interconnecting the four condominium towers. During weekends, I would normally read the Bible in the garden and then watch the colorful sunset with the fading rays reflected on the surface of the river. It was beautiful! And the thought that always entered my mind was: How could anyone marvel at the beauty of a sunset and not have faith in a divine Creator? How could anyone wonder at the beauty of creation and not believe in God?
A story is told of a young priest who was called to comfort a long suffering, old and dying widow. He tried to do his best to convey his care. But his knowledge of grief was abstract and academic. He had not experienced the kind of grief that the old widow was going through. Then another old woman about the same age as the dying widow came into the room. She approached the grieving and dying widow, embraced her tightly and said, “I understand, my dear, I understand.”
We can only understand the mystery of the Incarnation when we personally experience Jesus, the Word made flesh. Our faith is based not so much on scholarly study of the writings on Christianity but on a personal experience of a living God, who became human like us, who had all the strengths and weaknesses of human beings, except sin. This is unique to Christianity. Even in Greek mythology, the gods do not actually become real human beings but only pretend to be human beings. But our faith is based fundamentally on a God who has chosen to share the human condition with us. To know the Word requires personally experiencing the Word. There is no other way.
