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Master·evangeli.net

Today's Gospel + short theological explanation

Sunday II after Christmas
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Gospel text (Jn 1,1-18): In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God; He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him nothing came to be. Whatever has come to be, found life in him, life which for humans was also light (…). All who have received him he empowers to become children of God for they believe in his Name (…).

St. John prologue ("Where are you from?"). Our faith in Jesus brings us to birth from God

EDITORIAL TEAM evangeli.net (based on texts by Benedict XVI) (Città del Vaticano, Vatican)

Today, the evangelist John, who so often evokes the question about the origin of Jesus, does not put before a genealogy in his Gospel. But in his "Prologue" he grandly and emphatically proposes an answer to that question about the “where' from” of Jesus Christ: "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God".

At the same time, John has expanded that response, making from it a definition of the Christian existence: "All who received it [the Word]; he gave power to become children of God, if they believe in his name". I.e., those who believe in the name of Christ receive therefore his origin as their own.

— Just as, ultimately, the genealogies are interrupted - because Jesus was not conceived by Joseph, but He was really born from the Virgin Mary through the Holy Spirit-, the same also applies to us: our true "genealogy" is faith in Jesus, who gives us a new origin, which brings us birth "from God".