The Word became flesh

The Word became flesh. This central mystery of our faith is proclaimed in the prologue of St. John’s Gospel. It is also the great mystery we celebrate each Christmas. God became man. God came to us in human flesh. The Word is the person of Jesus Christ. To know the Word is to know God. It is by encountering the word that we know the person of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit has been given to the entire Church and to each person through the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. Jesus told us in the Gospel of John, chapter 14, that the Spirit will teach us and remind us of all that He said. According to the Rite of Confirmation, He is the light that guides us – our helper and guide.

What does all this mean to us in our daily lives? The truths of our faith are true because they can be lived or impact our daily lives. God is close to us, is present to us, lives in us through His word. We encounter Jesus in so many ways: He is present in the eucharist; he lives within us, and in those, we meet “whatever you do to the least you have done to me” (Mt 25:40), and He lives in His word. We are not people of “the Book.” We are people of the living Word. According to the Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 4, a word that is alive and active can cut through any falsehood, or any error in our life.

Our tradition is filled with beautiful examples of the saints who nurtured their faith through the study of the scriptures, prayer and meditation on the Word of God. They gathered treasures in their hearts that in turn overflowed in every aspect of their life. Their lives were transformed. They experienced what St. Paul wrote, “yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me” (Gal 2:20). It is not I who lives but Christ who lives in me.