Have you given it a thought why we read from John’s Epistles during Christmastide for the First Readings?
It is to get to know who really is the baby born of
Mary, as we celebrate his birth during Christmastide.
Traditionally, Christmastide spans from the Nativity
of the Lord to the Epiphany of the Lord. Liturgically, until the Baptism of the
Lord. But in some traditions, especially in Latin America, Christmastide
extends until the Presentation of the Lord, making Christmas celebration for 40
days. During this festive season, in order to prepare ourselves for Ordinary
Time in the Liturgical Calendar, we are learning more about who Jesus is and
what it means that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, born of Mary the
Blessed Virgin, the Immaculate Conception.
As we are about to close the Christmastide First
readings from the First Epistle of John, one important running theme in this Johannine
epistle is that knowing Christ means to faithfully observe his commandment to
love one another, as he has demonstrated to us (John 13:34). And this also
means to love one another by loving God. This is why he said, putting
Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 together:
You shall love the Lord, your God, with
all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the
greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your
neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two
commandments (Matthew 22:37-40).
John makes it clear that we must know who Christ is as
Christians. And to know who Chris is to observe his new commandment of love.
John also reminds that God is love. So in our observance of Christ’s
commandment of love for one another, we emulate this truth: God is love (1 John
4:8, 16).
As disciples of Christ, as Christ’s soldiers, as
beloved children of God, we conquer the world of sin, through our observance of
Christ’s commandment to love one another (1 John 5:1-4). And only those who
believe that Jesus is the Son of God can overcome the world (1 John 5:5).
In terms of Christ, John describes in these words:
This
is the one who came through water and Blood, Jesus Christ, not by water alone,
but by water and Blood (1 John 5:6a).
It is obvious that John wrote this against gnostic
view of Christ, as this is to say that Christ was born and died as a human.
When he was born of Mary, the incarnated Christ came
out of her birth canal with amniotic fluid and some flood. Because of this
blood, Mary observed the postpartum purification commandment (Leviticus 12:2-4;
Luke 2:22). And when he died, the blood and water flew suddenly from his body
upon being thrashed by a spear of a soldier (John 19:14). Witnessing this
The water can represents Jesus’ baptism to identify
himself with sinners, whom we has come to save, to dwell among them, and to
begin his salvific ministry. The blood represents his death on the Cross, on
which he shed his blood, as the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the
world through his blood.
He died, not because he had to die. But he laid his
life for us as our Good Shepherd (John 10:18) and to teach us the highest
practice of love for us to imitate (John 15:13). He died to save us (Galatians
1:4).
For this, Christ was incarnated in the unblemished
human flesh of Jesus out of the immaculate flesh of Mary, who was conceived
without any trace of Original Sin (i.e. John 1:1, 14; Luke 2:28, 30-33, 35).
And this is a strong point that John makes against gnostic heresies that denies
Christ’s incarnation and humanity.
In further addressing Christ’s full humanity with his
full divinity, John now connects the water and the blood to the Holy Spirit:
The
Spirit is the one who testifies, and the Spirit is truth. So there are three*
that testify, the Spirit, the water, and the Blood, and the three are of one
accord (1 John 5:6b-8).
Though NABRE and NRSVUE simply put “three”(1 John 5:7)
that testify, the version for the Greek Orthodox Church explains the “three” as,
“ὁ Πατὴρ, ὁ Λόγος καὶ τὸ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα/ho Pater, ho Logos, kai to Hagion
Pneuma” . Namely, the “three” means the Father, the Son (Logos), and the Holy
Spirit. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit testifies, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit, actually testify. And this reminds of the hypostatic triune union of
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, homoousios nature of the Trinity,
that testifies for the Holy Spirit, the water, and the blood.
It is revealed that the water and the blood are not
just the water and the blood as these are what the incarnated Christ, the Son
of God, came by way of human birth but also flew out of his body as he died on
the Cross. In fact, the water, with which was baptized parallels the Holy
Spirit, so that the water is for life (i.e. John 3:5-8; 7:37-39). And the blood
itself represents life (John 6:53; cf. Leviticus 17:11; Deuteronomy12:23).
Indeed, it was Christ himself gave witness to the blood and the water to St.
Maria Faustine Kwalska, in regard to the two rays, pale and red, radiating from
his sacred heart in his image:
The two rays denote Blood and Water. The
pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands the
Blood which is the life of souls. These two rays issued forth from the very
depths of My tender mercy when My agonized Heart was opened by a lance on the
Cross (Diary of St. Maria Faustina, 299; cf. John 19:34).
O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from
the Heart of Jesus as a fountain of Mercy for us, I trust in you!
(ibid., 84)
The blood of Christ is what frees us from our sins (Revelation 1:5) and cleanses us (Revelation 7:14). It is because his blood is not ordinary human blood but the human blood with the power of the Holy Spirit, which gives life (i.e. John 6:53-56).
In regard to the water, it is important to note that the
Father spoke from heaven when the incarnated Christ came by the water of
baptism, with the Holy Spirit upon him (Matthew 3:16):
This is my beloved Son, with whom I am
well pleased (Matthew 3:17).
The Father made it clear that the Christ is His
beloved Son. He reaffirmed this at the
Transfiguration (Matthew 17:5), which was a projection of the Christ’s death
and resurrection. It suggests that he come to us through the water and the
blood (1 John 5:6) and died on the Cross, shed the water and his blood (John
19:34), as God’s beloved Son. And the Holy Spirit testifies and bears witness
because he is the truth (John 14:17; 15:26; 16: 14).
Now John turns our attention to God’s testimony (1
John 5:9-12). But he also reminds us that our belief is a necessary condition to
benefit from God’s testimony, because believers in Christ the Son have witness
in themselves (1 John 5:10). It is because believing in Christ the Son, who is begotten
by God, makes us God’s beloved children (1 John 5:1). This is testified by the
Spirit of God with our spirit that we are children of God (Romans 8:16). And
God’s testimony is:
God gave us eternal life, and this life is
in his Son. Whoever possesses the Son has life; whoever does not possess the
Son of God does not have life (1 John 5:11-12).
This is why the incarnated Christ came to give us life
as the Living Bread of Life (John 6:51, 53-58). The fact that the incarnated
Christ in Jesus was placed in a manger upon his birth (Luke 2:7) suggests this,
for a manger is a feeding trough. And we possess the Son by eating this living
bread of life (John 6:56; cf. 14:10, 20; 17:23).
And John explains his reason for calling us to know
and believe in Christ:
I write these things to you so that you
may know that you have eternal life, you who believe in the name of the Son of
God
(1 John 5:13).
Having read much of John’s first epistle throughout
Christmastide, we sure know who that little newborn baby boy wrapped in a swaddling
cloth and placed in a manger is and how he impacts our lives. And John makes it
clear that the bottom line is that we are to live eternal life through our
belief in him.
Mark, in the Gospel Reading (Mark 7:7-11) also reminds
us that Christ the Son is going to baptize us with the Holy Spirit, and he is the
beloved Son of God the Father, with the Holy Spirit. He now comes to us to
impart the Holy Spirit and whatever the Father has bestowed in him, and one
thing of what the Father has bestowed in the Son for us is the love to make us
God’s beloved children (1 John 3:1-3). And we are to propagate this love (John
13:34; 1 John 3:11-24; 4:7-21). As Christ baptizes us with the Holy Spirit
(Mark 1:8), God pours out His love into us through the Holy Spirit (Romans
5:5).
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