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,
 |
| Roland Tiller |
And
the Life was the Light of mankind.
The
Light sines in the Darkness,
And
the Darkness did not grasp it.
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
January 1, 2012
John 1: 1-18
Words contain a great mystery. They are handed down to us by
our parents. Words are a legacy of the memory of how the world is structured,
structured with beings, with actions, with qualities. Words are also the
garments of thoughts. Thoughts not only reflect the past; they can also create
the future.
This creating power of the Word manifested in the ancient
past as the creation of the world. The Word’s first creation: Let there be
light. The Word became light.
The creative Word is still resounding as a sounding power,
creating the future. Now it says: ‘Let there be love’. But unlike the first
creation, this resounding of the Word requires our human cooperation. Human
beings must hear it; human beings must take its creative power into themselves.
Christ Jesus is the prototype of the human being who takes
into Himself the divine force of creating love and shines it forth as a revelation.
Through Christ, through Christ living in us, working in us, God’s grace shines
forth into the world. Through Christ living and working in us, the truth of
human creation reveals itself: ‘I have said you are ‘gods’[1].
The poet expresses it thus:
You were there in the
beginning
you heard the story, you heard the merciless
and tender words telling you where you had to go.
….
you couldn't live
so close to the live flame of that compassion
you had to go out in the world and make it your own
so you could come back with
that flame in your voice, saying listen...
this warmth, this unbearable light, this fearful love...
It is all here, it is all here.[2]
[1]
John 10:34-37 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said
you are “gods”’? If he called them
‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside—what
about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the
world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’?
Jesus’ reference is to Psalm 82: ‘God presides in the
great assembly; he renders judgment among the “gods”…. “I said, ‘You are
“gods”; you are all sons of the Most High.’
[2]
David Whyte “In the
Beginning” in Fire in the Earth
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