Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- Tabernacled Among Us

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 12.31.22 | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

John 1:1-18

Friends, today’s Gospel comes to its climax with the magnificent phrase:
“And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”

The Gnostic temptation has tugged at the Church, on and off,
for nearly the past two thousand years.
This is the suggestion, common to all forms of Puritanism,
that the spiritual is attained through a negation of the material.
But authentic Christianity, inspired by this stunning claim of St. John, has consistently held off Gnosticism,
for it knows that the Word of God took to himself a human nature
and thereby elevated all of matter and made it a sacrament of the divine presence.

The Greek phrase behind “made his dwelling among us” is literally translated as
“tabernacled among us” or “pitched his tent among us.”
No Jew of John’s time would have missed the wonderful connection
implied between Jesus and the temple.
According to the book of Exodus, the ark of the covenant—the embodiment of Yahweh’s presence—
was originally housed in a tent or tabernacle.
The evangelist is telling us that now, in the flesh of Jesus,
Yahweh has established his definitive tabernacle among us.

[MurphsLaw]

+++ 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 shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not
overcome it.

A man named John was sent from God.
He came for testimony, to
testify to the light,
so that all might believe through him.
He was not the light,
but came to testify to the light.
The true light, which enlightens
everyone, was coming into the world.

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.

But to those who did accept him
he gave power to become
children of God,
to those who believe in his name,
who were born not by natural generation
nor by human choice
nor by a man’s decision
but of God.

And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s
only-begotten Son,
full of grace and truth.

John testified to him and cried
out, saying,
“This was he of whom I said,
‘The one who is coming after me
ranks ahead of me
because he existed before me.’”
From his fullness we have all received,
grace in place of grace,
because while the law was given
through Moses,
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God.
The only-begotten Son, God, who
is at the Father’s side,
has revealed him.+++