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There is really no need for you to fear the darkness for: Life itself was in him. This life gives light to everyone. The light shines through the darkness. And the darkness can never conquer it.
In the dark, faith promises the dawn.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, a witness concerning the light, so that through him all might believe. John was not the light, but he came to declare the truth about the light. The real light, which shines on everyone, was coming into the world.
And he was in the world. Though the world came into being through him, the world didn't recognize him when he came.
How incredible that we should not recognize that which is being itself. Moses asked: "Who are you?" and God replied: "I am."
Who made us blind and dumb? Who made us worms crawling in garbage when God wants us to shine like stars? Original sin is hard to explain when Adam and Eve are only paradigms. But it seeps through everything like a smell.
Even in his own land and among his own people, he was not accepted. They didn't accept him. But we are "they." Whenever we sin, we are they. Do they worship false gods? So do we with each sin. Do they turn from light and life? So do we. Each sin is a little death.
And the Word became flesh like us. Wounded like us. Worm like us.
My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?
My prayer – why don't you hear?
My groans – why are you so deaf?
I am a worm and no man.2
Listen: this is the Word of God. This is your creator. This is the air you breathe. This is the earth you stand on. This is your life. This is your very existence. God creator of all that is great and wonderful has holes in his hands, has to raise himself up by the nails in his feet to merely breathe. And in his weakness he will die of suffocation. How could he let us kill him like this? For it is we who did this. All our sins and all the sins he has prevented us from committing have dug holes in his hands and shoved thorns into his head.
And he lived among us. God saw us suffering for our sins and his heart broke so he became one of us that he might feel our pain; that by his wounds he might heal our wounds; by his fatigue awake us from our lethargy; by his blood wash away what we do in cold blood. And through all our history we have done nothing – absolutely nothing – to deserve it.
But to all who accepted him and believed who he was, he gave the power to become children of God.
And who are we that God should invite us into his very being, into the community of Father, Word, and Spirit? Who are we to be God's child?
They were born, not to carry on bloodlines, nor because of sexual desires, nor because children were planned, but they were born from God.
Who are we that God the Father should invite us to be transformed into a being who will share with his Son in God's very nature?
And the Word became flesh and lived among us. Incredible. Impossible. Illogical. But this is what we believe. And this is what we live.
We saw his glory: The glory of the only Son of the Father. Glory full of grace and truth. And we live in early dawn lit by reflections of that glory. We live with the dawn, rejoicing.
No one has ever seen God. God's only Son, the one who is closest to the Father's heart, has made him known.
We who live in the light – when our tested faith relies on no creature thing – we are shown intimations of God. We are teased with knowledge that hints but does not satisfy.
John of the Cross wrote:
I live,
but in myself I cannot live,
for I have such hope
that I die because I cannot die.
This my life
is no life at all
and so I always die
until in you I live.
Listen, my God, listen:
I do not want this life I lead.
So I die because I do not die.
When in the Sacrament
I seek relief
I find a greater grief.
For I can but taste
that which should consume me.
And everything is pain
for I cannot see you whom I desire
and I die because I do not die.
Lift me from this death of life.
My God, give me life.
Dissolve these ropes
That tie me bound to earth.
I long to see your face,
And until I do
I die because I do not die.
When we feel no love, no hope, and faith seems dry unbelievable words, it doesn't matter. God loves us, not because we are good, but because he is good. We are works of art in progress. We do not need to know how we are being created. Only the artist needs to know.
In the beginning was the Word. And in the end. Forever and ever. Amen
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