Entry 0322: Reflections on the Second Sunday of Christmas
by Pope Benedict XVI
On three occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the Second Sunday of Christmas, on 4 January 2009, 3 January 2010, and 2 January 2011. Here are the three brief reflections he delivered on these occasions prior to the recitation of the Angelus.
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 4 January 2009
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
Today the liturgy
proposes anew for our meditation the same Gospel as that proclaimed on Christmas
Day: the Prologue of St John .
After the commotion of the recent days with the race to purchase gifts, the Church
invites us once again to contemplate the mystery of Christ’s Nativity, to understand
even better its profound meaning and importance to our lives. This is a wonderful
text that offers an impressive synthesis of the whole of the Christian faith. It
starts from on high: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and
the Word was God” (Jn 1: 1); and this is the unheard of and humanly inconceivable
news: “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1: 14a). It is not a rhetorical
figure but a lived experience! And it is John, an eyewitness, who tells of it. “We
have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father... full of grace
and truth” (Jn 1: 14). These are not the learned words of a rabbi or doctor of law
but rather the passionate witness of a humble fisherman. Attracted in his youth
by Jesus of Nazareth, in the three years he spent living with him and with the other
Apostles, John experienced his love, to the extent that he called himself “the disciple
Jesus loved” saw him die on the Cross and appear Risen, and then with the others
received his Spirit. From his heart’s meditation on the whole of this experience,
John drew a deep conviction: Jesus is the Wisdom of God incarnate, he is his eternal
Word who became a mortal man.
For a true Israelite
who knows the Sacred Scriptures, this is not a contradiction; on the contrary, it
is the fulfilment of the whole of the old Covenant. The mystery of a God who speaks
to men and women as his friends, who reveals himself to Moses in the Law, to the
wise and the prophets, reaches fulfilment in Christ. In knowing Jesus, in being
with him, hearing his preaching and seeing the signs he performed, the disciples
recognized that all the Scriptures were fulfilled in him. As a Christian author
was later to affirm: “The whole of divine Scripture constitutes one book and this
one book is Christ, it speaks of Christ and finds its fulfilment in Christ” (see
Ugo di San Vittore, De arca Noe, 2, 8). Every man and every woman needs to
find a profound meaning for their life. And this is why books do not suffice, not
even the Sacred Scriptures. The Child of Bethlehem reveals and communicates to us
the true “Face” of a good and faithful God, who loves us and even in death does
not abandon us. “No one has ever seen God,” concludes John’s Prologue; “the only
Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known” (Jn 1: 18).
The first to open
her heart and to contemplate “the Word who became flesh” was Mary, Mother of Jesus.
A humble girl from Galilee , she thus became the
“Seat of Wisdom”! Like the Apostle John, each one of us is invited to “[take] her
to his own home” (Jn 19: 27), to know Jesus deeply and to experience his faithful
and inexhaustible love. And this is my wish for each one of you, dear brothers and
sisters, at the beginning of this new year.
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 3 January 2010
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
On this Sunday the
second after Christmas and the first of the New Year I am glad to renew to all my
wishes for every good in the Lord! Problems are not lacking in the Church and in
the world, as well as in the daily life of families, but thanks be to God our hope
is not based on improbable predictions or financial forecasts, however important
these may be. Our hope is in God, not in the sense of a generic religiosity or a
fatalism cloaked in faith. We trust in God who revealed completely and definitively
in Jesus Christ his desire to be with human beings, to share in our history, to
guide us all to his Kingdom of love and life. And this great hope enlivens and at
times corrects our human hopes.
Three extraordinarily
rich biblical Readings speak to us today of this revelation: chapter 24 of the Book
of Ecclesiasticus, the opening hymn of St Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians and the
Prologue of John’s Gospel. These texts affirm that God is not only the Creator of
the universe an aspect common to other religions too but that he is the Father who
“chose us in him before the foundation of the world.... He destined us in love to
be his sons through Jesus Christ” (Eph 1: 4-5), and that for this reason he even,
inconceivably, went so far as to make himself man: “the Word became flesh and dwelled
among us” (Jn 1: 14). The mystery of the Incarnation of the Word of God was prepared
in the Old Testament, in particular where divine Wisdom is identified with the Mosaic
Law. Wisdom herself says: “The Creator of all things... assigned a place for my
tent. And he said: “Make your dwelling in Jacob, and in Israel receive your inheritance’” (Sir
24: 8). In Jesus Christ the Law of God became a living testimony, written in the
heart of a man in whom, through the action of the Holy Spirit the fullness of deity
resides in bodily form (see Col 2: 9).
Dear friends, this
is the true reason for humanity’s hope: history has meaning because it is “inhabited”
by the Wisdom of God. And yet the divine plan is not automatically implemented because
it is a plan of love, and love generates freedom and requires freedom. The Kingdom of God
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 2 January 2011
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
I renew to you all
my good wishes for the New Year and I thank all those who have sent me messages
of spiritual closeness.
This Sunday’s Liturgy
proposes anew the Prologue of the Gospel according to St John , solemnly proclaimed on Christmas Day.
This wonderful text expresses the mystery of the Incarnation, preached by eyewitnesses,
the Apostles, and in particular by John whose feast — not by chance — is
celebrated on 27 December.
St Chromatius of
Aquileia said that
“John was the youngest of all the Lord’s disciples; the youngest in age, but already
old in faith” (Sermo II, 1 De Sancto Iohanne Evangelista, CCL 9a, 101).
When we read: “In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn
1:1), the Evangelist, traditionally compared with an eagle — soars above human history,
scrutinizing God’s depths; but very soon, following his Teacher, he returns to the
earthly dimension, saying: “and the Word became flesh” (Jn 1:14).
The Word is “a living
reality: a God who... communicates himself by making himself man (J. Ratzinger,
Teologia della liturgia, LEV, 209 10, 618). In fact, John testifies that
he “dwelt among us” and “we have beheld his glory” (Jn 1:14).
“He lowered himself
to assume the humility of our condition”, St Leo the Great comments, “without this
diminishing his majesty” (Tractatus XXI, 2, CCL 138, 86-87).
Further, we read
in the Prologue: “From his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace” (Jn
1:16). “What is the first grace that we have received?” St Augustine asks and answers, “it is faith”.
The second grace, he immediately adds, is “eternal life” (In evangelium Johannis
tractatus III, 8.9, CCL 36, 24.25).
I now address in
Spanish the thousands of families meeting in Madrid for an important demonstration. I greet
with affection the many Pastors and faithful who are gathered in Plaza de Colón,
Madrid , in order to celebrate joyfully the value
of marriage and the family, on the theme: “The Christian family, hope for Europe ”.
Dear brothers and
sisters, I ask you to be strong in love and to contemplate with humility the Mystery
of Christmas that continues to speak to the heart and to become a school of family
and fraternal life. The motherly gaze of the Virgin Mary, the loving protection
of St Joseph and the sweet presence of the Baby Jesus are a clear image of what
every Christian family must be: an authentic sanctuary of fidelity, respect and
understanding in which faith is passed on, hope is strengthened and love is kindled.
I encourage one and
all to live the Christian vocation in your homes with renewed enthusiasm, as genuine
servants of the love that welcomes, accompanies and protects life. Make your home
a real nursery of virtues and a serene and luminous place of trust, in which, guided
by God’s grace, it is possible to discern wisely the call of the Lord who continues
to invite people to follow him.
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