Starting today, the first day of December, I am
going to make daily Advent reflections until Christmas Day, following journey
of Christ - from the pre-existing Word-Wisdom (Logos-Chokmar/Sophia) to
Jesus, who is the Logos incarnate, in the human flesh of Jesus, born of Mary,
the Immaculate Conception and the Blessed Virgin.
*****
A friend of mine commissioned me to form Advent
daily reflections for her children, starting the first day of December until
the day of the Nativity of the Lord. Though we can make reflections based on
the Scripture readings for daily Mass, and there are many Advent reflections in
line with the Roman Missal, I have decided to formulate a different daily
reflection for Advent to make it clear that Christ existed even before his
birth as the Son of Mary in Bethlehem. The Nativity (Christmas) in Bethlehem
was the very first known theophany. But, Christ himself pre-existed even before
the Creation of the universe as the Logos (the Word). So, in these daily
reflections, starting today, the first day of December, I want to follow how
the pre-existing Logos has come to us in the human flesh of Jesus, in the
figure of a baby in abject poverty, being placed in a manger, rather than a
comfy crib.
Day
1: December 1 John 1:1-14
In the night sky, you see stars shining. Some are brighter than others. It is because
some are bigger than others. Perhaps, it is also because some stars are closer
to us than others. There are far more stars in the universe than what we can
see as stars.
The farthest star from us can be at least some billion
light years away! It takes light to travel billions of years from the star to
us. And, you know how fast light travels. It travels a distance in flash. There is nothing we know that travels as fast
as light. Yet, it takes light million years to reach us from such a star.
Imagine Jesus had traveled even much longer distance
than the distance to the farthest star, which is billions of light years away,
to be born in Bethlehem, to be with us, and to save us and to bring us to his
Kingdom, about 2,000 years ago.
Christ did not just come, about 2,000 years ago. He
has been in existence since eons ago, even before God the Father created the
universe – heaven and earth. We say in our creed, Nicene Creed, every time we
go to Mass, “..the only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages”
about our belief in Jesus. It means that
Jesus was the Logos (the Word), before all ages, before the Creation. Of
course, way before Adam and Eve. Jesus was the Word in the beginning – even
before ancient stars existed…even before the universe existed (John 1:1). And, the World became flesh to live among us
(John 1:14) through the Immaculate body of Mary, the Blessed Virgin, by the
power of the Holy Spirit (Mathew 1:18; Luke 1:35).
And, this was already spoken by Prophet Isaiah
nearly 700 years before the birth of Jesus! Isaiah said that a virgin will
become pregnant with a son (Isaiah 7:14), foretelling of the birth of Jesus
from Mary!
*It is noteworthy to see juxtapose John 1:1-14 to
Proverbs 8, especially vv.22-31, pre-existing Christ as the Logos to the
pre-existing Wisdom (Chokmah),
alluded to Christ in Trinity.
Stay tuned for Day 2.
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