In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
Christ is risen!
The beloved disciple starts his Gospel, which we have heard, not with a new character but one with Whom the Old Testament is familiar.
After these things the Word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. (Genesis 15:1)
And Moses gave their redemption money to Aaron and his sons, according to the Word of the Lord, as the Lord commanded Moses. (Numbers 3:51)
So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the Word of the Lord. (Deuteronomy 34:5)
Now the Word of the Lord came to Samuel. (First Kingdoms 15:10)
For St John is presenting to us that this Word of the Lord, Who appears also as the Angel of the Lord, Who visits and stays with Israel at various times and seasons, Who is God but is distinct from God, since God Himself says to Moses,
Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.
Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him.
But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
— Exodus 23:20–22
This same Word,
became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.
And it is this Word Who in the beginning “was with God and … was God,” through Whom God brought all things into being.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we receive today the connecting tissue between the two Covenants—the appearances of God in the Old Testament were Christ and now we discover how to come more perfectly to the Father. For if we are baptised into Christ, if we put on Christ, if we turn again to the living God through Christ then ours is eternal Life with Christ, the Kingdom of God reigning together with Christ. Let us take this great gift of grace and truth, Jesus Christ, and hold onto Him, guard Him, share Him, proclaim Him that we may invite all to new Life through Him Who has defeated Death and released us from slavery to sin that we may be free.
Christ is risen!
To our risen Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ be all glory, honour and worship, together with His unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit. Amen.
In the first book, O Theophilos, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. To them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of lsrael?” He said to them, “it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.
— Acts 1:1–8
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 not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light.The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. (John bore witness to him, and cried, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, for he was before me.'”) And from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
— John 1:1–17