A reading from the book of Ecclesiasticus (24:1-2, 8-12)
Wisdom speaks her own praises,
in the midst of her people she glories in herself.
She opens her mouth in the assembly of the Most High,
in the presence of the Mighty One she glories in herself:
Then the Creator of all things instructed me
and he who created me fixed a place for my tent.
He said, “Pitch your tent in Jacob,
make Israel your inheritance.”
Before the ages, in the beginning, he created me
and till eternity I shall remain.
In the holy tent I ministered before him
and thus became established in Zion.
In the beloved city he has given me rest
and in Jerusalem I wield my authority.
I have taken root in an honoured people,
in the Lord’s property, in his inheritance.
In the wisdom writings we frequently find the ‘Wisdom’ (hokmah – sophia) which comes from God personified. Here in chapter 24 of the Wisdom of Ben Sira, also known as ‘Ecclesiasticus’, Wisdom ‘speaks her own praises’. She is told to dwell in ‘Jacob’, among the tribes of Israel. She is described as ‘created in the beginning’ and ‘resting’ in the ‘beloved city’. The strongest parallel with the incarnation of the Word comes in the command: ‘Pitch your tent in Jacob’. John 1:14 reads: ‘the Word lived (eskenesen) among us’, or, more literally, ‘pitched his tent with us’. The Word of God is indeed the Wisdom of God.
Psalm 147 (146) God ‘sends out his word to the earth’.
A reading from the letter of saint Paul to the Ephesians (1:3-6, 15-18)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing of heaven in Christ,
as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world
to be holy and faultless before him in love,
marking us out beforehand for adoption as sons, through Jesus Christ
according to the generosity of his will;
to the praise of the glory of his grace,
which he lavished on us in the Beloved.
That is why I, having once heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to thank God for you, as I remember you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in further knowledge of him; that the eyes of your mind may be enlightened for you to see what the hope of his call is, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.
The letter to the Christians of Ephesus begins with a hymn of praise for the plan of God, who chose us ‘from the foundation of the world’ to be his adopted children through the abundance of grace (charis) lavished on us in Christ. In later verses from the same chapter, Paul prays for the Christians of Ephesus, that their faith may grow, and that ‘the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory’ may bestow on them a ‘spirit of wisdom’ (pneuma sophias) and of ‘revelation’ (apokalupsis). Paul prays that their eyes be enlightened to be able to see the ‘hope of his call’ (elpis tes kleseos autou), and the ‘richness of the glory’ (ploutos tes doxes) which the saints (hagioi) inherit with Christ.
The beginning of the holy gospel according to John (1:1-18)
In the beginning was the Word:
the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things came into being,
not one thing came into being except through him.
What has come into being in him was life,
life that was the light of all people;
and light shines in darkness,
and darkness could not overpower it.
There was a man sent by God.
His name was John.
He came as a witness,
to bear witness to the light,
so that everyone might believe through him.
He was not the light,
he was to bear witness to the light.
The true light
that gives light to everyone
was coming into the world.
He was in the world
and the world came into being through him,
and the world did not know him.
He came to what was his own
and his own people did not accept him.
But to those who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God,
to those who believed in his name,
who were born not from blood,
or from the will of the flesh,
or from human will
but from God himself.
The Word became flesh,
and lived among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of an only-begotten Son of the Father,
full of grace and truth.
John witnesses to him and cried out, saying,
‘This is the one of whom I said:
He who comes after me
has passed ahead of me
because he was before me.’
Indeed, from his fullness
we have all received,
grace upon grace,
for the Law was given through Moses,
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God;
it is the only-begotten Son,
who is close to the Father’s heart,
who has made him known.
As Wisdom dwelt among the Israelites, so the Word of God, who was with the Father in the beginning (arche), makes his tent among us. The coming of the Word transforms human existence, assuring men and women of their destiny as ‘children of God’ (tekna theou). The Law (nomos) which was ‘given through Moses’ was the Wisdom which dwelt in Israel (Ecclesiasticus 24:23), but, in accordance with God’s plan, Jesus Christ has brought ‘grace’ (charis) and ‘truth’ (aletheia), the ultimate gifts of the Father. ‘No one has seen God’, but the ‘only-begotten Son’ has ‘made him known’, ‘explained him’ and ‘become his interpreter’ (exegeisthai).
Where does God dwell today among people?
Consider the stages of God’s wonderful plan for our well-being.