Only one Word…and that Word is evolving…

This morning we move from the concrete images of Luke’s gospel narrative in last night’s glorious celebration - images of the stable, the baby, the parents, the shepherds, the night sky lit up and resounding with song.

We come to this Christmas morning listening:

• first to the remarkable imagery of Isaiah’s proclamation that the news of this event has spread to all the ends of the earth…
• And, then, in Hebrews - that the reality of the event lies in all the annals of time…
• And, finally, John proclaims that the Word was in the beginning - it was with God and it was God. John does this in theological poetry!

Theological poetry such as this can be daunting. In order to get at the message, I suggest that we focus on the idea that there is really only one Word! To begin, a few thoughts on the importance of words in our human lives.
 
In an oral culture, the spoken word has a power that it does not have in our culture, where often it’s only the signed contract that matters, but in the biblical cultures the spoken word had power. Scriptural stories abound with blessings and curses that after they were spoken could not be reversed –

• think of Isaac blessing Jacob by mistake and then, not being able to give the same blessing to Esau, his first born,
• or think of the mother of Micah who curses a man dressed as a thief and when she discovers that she has actually cursed her own son, she is unable to withdraw that curse.

We regard people favorably in our day if they stay true to their own word.

Words are said to render things intelligible.

Think of the times we say or hear someone say – “I just cannot find or think of the ‘word’ to express what I mean.”

Suzanne’s reflections extended the invitation to write down what we believe and how, when we do so, words don’t necessarily come easily.

Remember that scene in the life of Helen Keller when she all of a sudden got the connection between the sounds her faithful teacher, Annie Sullivan, was making and the concept of water – in that moment, she discovered her first “word”.

The invitation of this gospel reading is to make the connection between the words we hear in our liturgical proclamations and the reality of our own lives and in our own experience of our world.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

It is the image of the child that dominates our imaginations on this day but it is the Word made flesh in human kind and that Word that lives within each one of us that is the real mystery here.

There is only one Word and that Word, in a moment of time, became flesh. Since then, that Word has evolved and it is evolving in our very midst. In each of those 7 billion human beings on our planet today, the Christ is born anew and through the life of each one, the divine milieu is changing and evolving.

We are that flesh of the Word who became flesh. Our lives can and do proclaim that one and only Word. We do so in the spirit of St. Francis who is quoted as having said: “Preach the Word of God wherever you go, even use words if necessary.”

In the reality of the mystical body of Christ and in the unfolding of the cosmic Christ, the Word of God evolves.

In the midst of many words – spoken and sung and read and proclaimed - there is only one Word! That Word is God. That Word is Love.

Each day after we proclaim the scriptures, we say , “The Word of God.” Perhaps that phrase is not so much telling us that the Biblical passage we just heard was “the Word of God” but rather, it is inviting us to incarnate anew the Word as it is meant to be lived out in our own unique life that day?

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God…..the Word is God. God is Love.

That is John’s theological poetry.

Christmas proclaims the one Word. In each of us and in our world, that Word is evolving and it is alive. May each of us speak that WORD this day and every day!