The Magnificent Prologue

From the most ancient times, it has been the custom in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church for priests to offer three Masses on Christmas and to use a distinctly different prescribed liturgical text for each of those Masses. Pope Benedict XVI remarks that "in the Gospel of the third Christmas Mass, (called the Mass During the Day, in contrast with the second Mass, called the Mass at Dawn, and the first Mass, called the Mass at Midnight), the lovable and familiar elements of the story of Jesus Christ’s birth in the stable at Bethlehem seem to have been caught up into the foreign immensity of the mystery. We do not hear about the Child and His mother or about the shepherds and their sheep or about the song of the angels that proclaims to men the peace that comes from God’s glory. And yet, there are common elements. This Gospel too speaks of the light that shines in the darkness. It speaks of the glory of God, which we can see as grace in the incarnate Word, and it speaks of the Lord Who was not welcomed in His own home."

The Gospel passage for the third Mass of Christmas consists of the first eighteen verses of the Gospel according to Saint John, which is called the Prologue to his Gospel narrative. The great saints and doctors of the Church have said that the Gospel according to Saint John is the pearl of great price among the New Testament texts and the Prologue is the priceless heart of that pearl within that Gospel. Saint Augustine and Saint John Chrysostom both said that it is totally beyond the ability or power of any human being to have written such glorious words as are in the Prologue, and, therefore, they could only have come directly from God Himself. The Prologue is an utterly splendid poem and an extremely beautiful hymn. Because of its beauty, it had been a long standing custom from the earliest times for the priests of the Church to read it over sick people after anointing them and over newly baptized infants. It often was written down and placed in lockets which the early Christians then would wear around their necks, especially in times of danger or when travelling. For many centuries it was the final prayer (called the "last Gospel" - as it still is in the Extraordinary Form of the Latin Rite) in the Latin Rite Mass, where it served as a blessing for people as they exited the church at the conclusion of Mass and as a form of thanksgiving after the Eucharistic sacrifice.

Our Holy Father notes, "If we listen more closely, we can perceive that the Gospel of the third Mass on Christmas Day is telling us exactly the same story as the Gospel of the first Mass on Christmas night, and we see that all the evangelists are relating one and the same Gospel, but approaching it from different angles. Luke and Matthew relate the earthly story, on the basis of which they allow us to see God’s hidden action. John, the eagle, looks from the vantage point of the mystery of God and shows how this mystery penetrates the stable and enters the flesh and blood of man. What does he wish to tell us? And, what does the Church intend to tell us about Christmas Day and, on the basis of this feast, about the entire year and, indeed, about our life as a whole, when she presents us with this solemn and hieratic text, although we rather might have expected the warm words of the story of Jesus’ birth?" Of course, as the Pope says, "This Gospel belongs from the earliest centuries to the Christmas liturgy because it contains the sentence that expresses the very reason for our joy and the real contents of the feast: ‘The Word became Flesh, and dwelt among us’ (John 1:14)."

The Supreme Pontiff preaches, "What we are celebrating at Christmas is not the birthday of some great man or other. There are many great men. Nor are we simply celebrating the mystery of what it is to be a child. It is, of course, true that the freshness, the purity, and openness of a child give us hope. We find the courage to trust that new possibilities lie ahead of man. But, if we cling too tightly to this aspect alone, seeing nothing more than the new beginning of life in a child, we risk ending up disillusioned and sad, for this newness too will be used up.... If all we had to celebrate was the idyll of a birth and a childhood, we would, in the last analysis, have no idyll at all. All that would remain would be the perennial cycle of death and birth, and one may ask whether in that case being born is not in fact rather a cause for sadness, since it leads only to death. This is why it is so important to realize that something more has happened here: the Word has become Flesh. Here, something utterly immense, something we could never have thought up for ourselves has happened: God has become one of us. He has united Himself to a human being so inseparably that this Man is genuinely God from God, Light from Light, while remaining true Man."

"The eternal Meaning of the world has come to us in so real a manner that we can touch Him and see Him (1 John 1:1). For what John calls ‘the Word’ also means in Greek ‘the Meaning’...and this Meaning addresses us, knows us, leads us. This Meaning is Itself a Person, the Son of the living God, Who was born in a stable in Bethlehem. Many people, indeed in some sense all of us, find this too good to be true. The Meaning has power. It is God and God is good, and is not some remote highest Being forever inaccessible. He is very close to us. We can call to Him. We can always reach Him. He has time for me, so much time that He lay as a Man in a crib and remains a Man for all eternity."

The Bishop of Rome says, "He came a Child in order to break down our pride. Perhaps we would have capitulated before power and wisdom, but He does not want our capitulation. He wants our love. He wants to free us from our pride and thus make us truly free. Let us then allow the joy of Christmas to penetrate our souls. It is no illusion. It is the truth. The ultimate and genuine truth is beautiful and good. When men encounter it, they become good. The truth speaks to us in a Child Who is God’s own Son. The Gospel closes with the words: ‘We have beheld His glory’ (John 1:14). These could be the words of the shepherds and the words of Mary and Joseph describing their memory that night in Bethlehem." The Pope suggests these should be our words as we leave church after the Mass or Masses (many Catholics try to attend more than one Mass) on Christmas. ‘We have beheld His glory’. Pope Benedict says "These words explain what believing means. It means seeing His glory in the world."

There is probably no more appropriate time in the liturgical calendar than the annual Advent-Christmas period to read again and meditate on the wonderful and divinely inspired words of the magnificent Prologue to the Gospel according to Saint John.