The
Gospel of John, 1:1-18
transl.
Adam Bittleston
In
the very beginning was the Word,
And
the Word was with God,
And
the Word was God.
He
was with God in the very beginning.
All
things came into being through Him,
And
without Him came into being nothing
That
has come into being.
In
him was Life,
And
the Life was the Light of mankind.
The
Light sines in the Darkness,
And
the Darkness did not grasp it.
 |
| John the Baptist, Leonardo da Vinci |
There
came to be a man, sent from God,
His
name Ioannes.
He
came for testimony,
That
he should testify of the Light,
That
all might have faith through him.
He
was not the Light,
But
came to testify of the Light.
For
the Light that in truth endures,
That
illumines every man,
Was
coming into the World.
He
was in the World,
And
the World came into being through Him
Yet
the World did not know Him.
He
came to the separate,
Yet
the separate men did not receive Him.
But
those who received Him—
To
them He gave full power
To
become children of God,
Those
who have faith in His name.
They
have their being
Not
from the bloodsteams,
Not
from the will of the flesh,
Not
from the will of a man,
But
from God.
And
the Word became flesh,
And
made his dwelling among us,
And
we saw His glory,
Glory
of one born from the Father alone,
With
abundance of grace and truth.
Ioannes
testified of Him, proclaiming,
That
is He of whom I said:
He
Who comes after me
Takes
His place above me
Because
He was before me.
From
the abundance of His Being
We
have all received
Grace
upon grace.
The
Law was given through Moses;
Grace
and truth came into being
Through
Jesus Christ.
God
no-one has beheld ever;
The Son Who is born of Him alone
And
Who has His Being
At
the Father’s breast,
Has
come to lead our seeing.
Holy
Nights, New Year’s Day
John
1: 1-18
In
the beginning, at the first creation in Genesis, God said, “Let there be
light.” And there was light, separating itself out from the dark and formless
void. Light is the forefront of all existence. After the light is created, come
the waters of life, and the separation of the living waters of the heavens from
what will become the watery earth below. The first creation was achieved through
separation, by division and elaboration. And after a long human history, human
beings become blind and God himself seems to disappear from the picture.
 |
| Roland Tiller |
With
the advent of Christ, the creating Word of God speaks again, and a second, new
creation begins. What was sundered in the beginning becomes reconnected. The
light and the living waters come together again, and a divine human being is created.
He is a bright fountain of living light; in Him is a life that is the true
first light itself. And the Light reveals—itself, as a God in a human form that
we can see.
God
enters the picture of the world again. He is a God whose truth is overflowing
love. It is this human God, this divine human being, who would rouse us from
the sleep of earth, from the illusions and deceptions of the sense-bound world.
He would shine upon our day and open our eyes. Through Him, our blindness
toward God will be healed. In this way, the abyss that had opened up between
God and Man is bridged.
The
creative Word of God speaks again, an invitation: “Come, follow Me across the
abyss into a new way of seeing.”
And
one day we all will say in the words of the mystic:
I
saw a fullness, and a singeing
brightness
with which I then
felt myself to be so
filled
that
words now fail to serve,….
I
would not say I saw a bodily form,
but
He was as He is in Heaven,
which is to say of
such exquisite
beauty
that I have no means
to
speak it, save to say
He is the Beauty, the
All Good.[1]
[1]
Blessed Angela of Foligno (c. 1248-1309) “A Vision” in Love’s Immensity, Scott Cairns, p. 87.
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