Second Sunday after Christmas
Readings: Sir 24:1-2, 8-12; Ps 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20;
Eph 1:3-6, 15-18; John 1:1-18
“[A]mong my chosen put down your roots” (Sir 24:8)
Sister María del Carmen is a passionate Spaniard who came to San Cristóbal de las Casas, in the state of Chiapas, México, decades ago. She has worked tirelessly for the women of the diocese, teaching them the tools of biblical interpretation, social analysis, and networking, in order to help empower them for transformative change. Under her leadership, land was acquired, a center was built, and countless meetings have been held, bringing together women who were formerly voiceless and powerless. When asked how long she would stay in this mission land, she quickly retorts, “Here I have been called and here I will plant my bones when I die.” Like her, missionaries the world over have left their homes to respond to God’s call to serve a people not their own, falling so deeply in love with them that they cannot ever imagine leaving. They have adopted a people and the people have adopted them.
The readings today speak of Jesus’ becoming human in similar terms. The letter to the Ephesians says that God adopts us through Christ. God has fallen in love with humankind, and, in Christ, pitches the divine tent in our midst, and here chooses to remain. The metaphor of adoption underscores that this love relationship is chosen; it did not have to be. This makes the adopted one even more beloved.
In the first reading, Woman Wisdom first speaks of being in the assembly of the Most High. There she seems perfectly happy, as she is exalted and admired in the midst of her people. But when the Creator directs her to pitch her tent in Israel, among God’s chosen, there she readily goes and fixes her abode. God’s chosen become her beloved as she declares, “I have struck root among a glorious people” and elects to linger in their company.
The Fourth Evangelist uses very similar language and imagery to speak of the Word becoming flesh. Like Woman Wisdom, the Word pitches his tent among the chosen ones to whom God sends him. While the author of the letter to the Ephesians used the metaphor of adoption to describe how we become God’s beloved, the prologue of John’s Gospel speaks of how we are born as children of God—“not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man” (1:13, NRSV), but by faith in the Word. “Not of blood” refers to the belief in antiquity that conception occurred through the mingling of woman’s blood with male seed. Nor does being begotten by God come about through human desire, “will of the flesh,” or, more precisely, that of males, “the will of man.” In Jesus’ day it was thought that males were the initiators of sexual activity.
The Fourth Evangelist asserts that although the Word that became flesh was a unique Son (1:14), all can become equally beloved children of God, by allowing themselves to be born anew through faith in the Word. Later in this same gospel, Jesus will invite Nicodemus into this rebirth (3:5). This rebirthing is a continual action on the part of God. It is not something that occurs only once. In this Christmas season, there is the delight and joy at the birth of the One who comes to abide with humankind. But in a few short months, we will journey with him again through another birth as he undergoes his passion and is then resurrected. Already today’s gospel hints at this. Some of those with whom he chooses to dwell will not accept him (1:11) and will seek to end his life. When that time approaches, Jesus tells his disciples that the suffering they are about to endure are the birth pangs that will lead to another birth (16:20-21). Like a faithful missionary, he never leaves those with whom he has cast his lot; he remains with them in the form of the Paraclete (14:16-20; 20:22). Just as Woman Wisdom is not apart from the presence of the Creator when she dwells with Israel, so the Son is ever at the bosom of the Father (1:18) even when he has become human. So, too, those who believe in the Word are always reclining on the breast of Christ, as his Beloved Disciple (John 13:1), no matter where they are called to pitch their tent.
1. When has love impelled you to leave your own home, physically or metaphorically, to devote yourself to someone else?
2. Think of someone who has adopted you and give thanks for the free gift of his or her love.
3. Rest in the bosom of God, giving thanks for the many rebirths in your life and for those yet to come.