John 1:6-18
Though in reality, nobody, not even Christ himself
knows, exactly when he will arrive, in spirit and in memory, based on the
Scriptures, we know that our Advent journey have passed its halfway mark.
In fact, Advent Season is only less than 4 weeks, as
the solemn feast of the Nativity of the Lord falls during the week of the
Fourth Sunday of Advent. Nevertheless, the journey that Christ himself has
taken to come to us in the human flesh of Jesus, born of Mary, the Blessed
Virgin and the Immaculate Conception, the Theotokos,
far greater than 4 weeks or so.
Remember, as Blessed Pope Pius IX reminded in his Ineffable Deus, Yahweh, God the Father, had
already pre-chosen Mary as the Theotokos.
So, He had arranged her conception in her mother’s womb to be free from any
impacts of Original Sin. In other words, even before the time and the Creation,
God the Father planned the Immaculate Conception for Mary to be full of grace,
impervious to any effect of Original Sin, so that she can serve as the Theotokos, to let Christ, the Son of
God, incarnate out of her flesh, as his unblemished flesh to come to us and to
dwell among us. This way, the Word can be incarnated to dwell among us without
any problem.
Who knows how long ago this whole plan was made. It
was before the time and the Creation. So, at least billions of years ago.
Imagine that Christ, who pre-existed before all ages
(before the time) and before the Creation, has travelled for eons in time span
and who knows how many billions of light years to come to us through Mary’s
body.
But, as we are well into the latter half of Advent
journey, it is like last two weeks of Mary’s third trimester pregnancy. It means that the already incarnated Christ
(whose incarnation took place upon his virgin conception in Mary’s womb at
Annunciation by the power of the Holy Spirit) has grown enough in Mary’s womb
and begun itching to come out.
Yes, the incarnated Christ is near us now. Though he
is still hidden in Mary’s womb, he is getting ready to come out. He is getting
ready to meet us.
But, what about us? Are we really ready to greet and
welcome Christ, who has journeyed eons in time, far more than billions of years
light years distance?
When we began Advent journey on First Sunday of
Advent, we were awakened and reminded to remain alert because Christ is coming
(and he was already incarnated and growing in Mary’s womb). On the Second
Sunday of Advent, John the Baptist, who had already sensed the nearness of
Christ’s coming, has called us to get busy in preparing the way for the
incarnated Christ to come to our hearts. So, as all the valleys are filled and
all the mountains are flatten, we level the rough conditions of our own
hearts - so that our hearts shall be a
hospitable place for Christ to be welcomed upon unimaginably long journey since
before the beginning of time. And, on
the Third Sunday of Advent, we fill our hearts with anticipatory joy, trusting
and knowing that Christ is very near now. But, at the same time, we remain in
our diligence and vigilance in fine-tuning our preparatory work to welcome him
at his arrival.
Now, there is another important matter that John the
Baptist teaches us to make sure before Christ’s arrival. And it is our
readiness to give testimony to Christ, as John the Baptist himself gave his
testimony to Christ the light.
It is quite interesting to know that John the
Baptist was sent from God to give a testimony to the light, Christ, in the hope
for the world to believe in Christ and to be, therefore, enlightened by him,
through John’s testimony (John 1:6-9).
The world was created through Christ the light (cf.
John 1:3; 1Corinthians 8:6; Colossians 1:16) and he was also in the world but
the world did not recognize him (John 1:10). In other worlds, by the time John
the Baptist began making his testimony to Christ, as the voice crying out in
the wilderness”(John 1:23; Isaiah 40:3a), Christ himself is already in the world,
no longer out in heaven. But, we did not recognize his presence.
John the Baptist gave his testimony to Christ, who
was already in the world and among us – though not seen in public yet, Israelites,
especially those who were in the religious authority, did not believe his
testimony and did not accept Christ (John 1:11). And, those who did not believe
and accept put John the Baptist in inquisition (John 1:19-34) and later, not
only they did not believe though he made clear appearance to them but even
demonized him (i.e. John 8:12-9:41).
While some did not believe and accept Christ, Christ
adopted those who came to believe and accept him as the Son of God as children
of God (John 1:12-13). For this reason, Christ, who is the Word (Logos), came to us in the human flesh of
Jesus, in order to dwell among us, as Emmanuel (God with us), as God’s only
Son, in glory and full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
Because of Christ among us, the Son of God, is full
of grace and truth, we can receive and truth through him, while the Law that
Moses received did not give these (John 1:16-17).
Furthermore, through Christ, besides grace and truth
that the Law cannot give, we can also be entitled to revelation of God, who is
invisible to us, because Christ, the Son of God, is besides the Father (John
1:18).
Christ pre-existed before the time and the Creation.
Yet, God arranged to make his first public theophany (which is the Baptism of
the Lord) upon the testimony of John the Baptist (John 1:15) in the hope that
we may come to believe and accept the one to whom John the Baptist give his
testimony to.
Given where we are on our Advent journey, the
incarnated Christ is already in the world, though we have not yet seen him in
his theophany. Though we have not seen Christ yet, we have already listened to
John the Baptist’s powerful testimony to Christ. John’s testimony to Christ is
so powerful because he has seen Christ already (John 1:34).
Do we believe and accept Christ before we see him at
his arrival? And, are we willing to go testify (martureo) to Christ, whom we are now looking forward to witnessing
at his arrival in our hearts? This is
why we have been awakened since the First Sunday of Advent and we have been
working diligently since the Second Sunday of Advent not only to receive but to
witness and make our testimonies to Christ in the world – though it may put us
in danger of persecution and even martyrdom.
Remember, martyrdom is the ultimate form of
practicing “martureo”, as the word “martyr”
has its etymological origin in the root word of “martureo”, “martus”(witness).
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