(Audio)
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
The first thing God created in the Genesis account was light, before which the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of it. But the Gospel of John looks back before that beginning to an even early point where the Word and the Father dwelt together, coeternal, coequal in power and glory. That Word was true light, in view of which created light was only a dim approximation.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
God had created physical light, yet that physical light already indicated a cyclical world, an impermanence, a not having as yet arrived at the true source of light. The true light was not immediately visible to creatures, for they could not behold it directly, and lest their free will be overwhelmed by it. But they were invited to by analogy with the goodness of created light to seek the spiritual light of wisdom.
For she is fairer than the sun
and surpasses every constellation of the stars.
Compared to light, she is found more radiant;
though night supplants light,
wickedness does not prevail over Wisdom (see Wisdom 7:29-3).
Just as physical light prevented those who walked by it from stumbling and falling, just as it enabled work and productivity, and just as only by it could true beauty be seen, so too, and even more, did creatures need wisdom to order their lives toward that which matters most.
Wisdom was for generations obscure and only found by a few. Those who did find it saw more clearly the meaning of theirs lives. They could more clearly discern how desirable a destiny it would be to behold forever the source of that light. But the origin of light did not want to leave us in that state of deprivation. Everything in creation was preparation so that we would desire and welcome the true light from God. Even those who most clearly understood wisdom, who most transparently beheld the uncreated light, still only had the barest glimpse. Even they proved by their lives that they could not keep their eyes on that light for long. There was in fact the temptation to despair that the darkness had won because of just how little light seemed visible, how even the greatest lovers of wisdom seemed to meet the common fate of all men. Wisdom himself refused to leave us in that darkness and came to be for us the true light that shines in the darkness.
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil (see John 3:19).
Even before the Word became flesh it was only in the light of God that we had we ever seen beauty, only by acting in wisdom had we ever known peace or joy. Yet because of our human limitations and the taint of sin from our fallen nature we did not desire to gaze upon that light for long. We saw it, but stumbled. We fell frequently enough as to feel invested in the darkness. The light eventually began to seem unattainable, to heartbreaking to even attempt to pursue. We consigned ourselves to darkness and decided to even hate the light which finally began to seem hurtful to us, as though a cruel joke.
It was to us, dwelling in darkness and the shadow of death, that the preexistent Word, whom the creed calls "light from light", who was in his person the Wisdom of God (see First Corinthians 1:24), became incarnate. It was he who took on flesh so that he would be visible even to the eyes of creatures. By doing so he offered a new opportunity for salvation to all peoples. We could look at the Word made flesh and see that all of the promises of light, beauty, and truth were real, that the darkness had not in fact won, that the thing for which our hearts longed, was real, solid, and within our grasp.
And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s only Son,
full of grace and truth.
The world around us would continue to contain ample darkness, but Jesus himself could now be a lighthouse by which we could steer the course of our lives, a light which would even now reward those who traveled by it with the sight of things eternal, things in which our hearts could finally rest.
From his fullness we have all received,
grace in place of grace
Brothers and sisters, let us embrace the light of the one who is the "refulgence of [the Father's] glory". We need not remain imprisoned by the shadowy nature of creation apart from the light of the creator, nor the darkness of sin. The one who stood behind all things as source and origin, the one who "sustains all things" came among us so that could truly trust that the God was for us and not against us. The darkness would not be permitted to have the last word. There was proof positive that the light was not merely an illusion. The revelation of the birth of the savior made all of this known in instant, by the birth of infant. All worldly presuppositions are prejudices were turned on their heads. But to those who would allow themselves to see the truth that was given flesh in this birth the power of the love on display was both undeniable and unsurpassable.
Hark! Your sentinels raise a cry,
together they shout for joy,
for they see directly, before their eyes,
the LORD restoring Zion.
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