Readings (Year A):
Isaiah 49:3, 5-6
Psalm 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10
1 Corinthians 1:1-3
John 1:29-34
Reflection: The story begins with the Word
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This is the beginning of the Gospel of John. The other three gospels are called the “synoptic” gospels because they are more straightforward accounts—synopses—of the life of Jesus. The Gospel of John, on the other hand, begins with this sweeping, mystical poem about God and the nature of God.
After introducing us to the Word, the gospel introduces us to John the Baptist. We zoom in on the Word made flesh, and thus the story of Jesus Christ begins—not with the nativity, but right in the middle. John the Baptist, messenger and prophet, sets the stage for us. He says: “After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” John doesn’t mean that Jesus is older than him; he speaks of the deepest, ultimate precedence. John goes forth to tell the new story of the incarnation, but also to tell the oldest story that has ever been told. This story proves popular and dangerous; in the end, the king kills John for telling it.
In art, John the Baptist usually points beyond the frame, toward something or someone that the artist does not try to depict. Leonardo da Vinci painted John pointing upward while he stares directly at the viewer with an enigmatic smile. The painter Titian showed John gesturing horizontally, his eyes fixed on something off to his right.
Like John the Baptist, we are called to gesture toward God. I use the word “gesture” to describe our human limitations. As the Gospel of John reminds us, the Word Incarnate offers a contradiction: The incarnation is physical reality, but it is also the greatest mystery, ineffable and untouchable, absolutely unpaintable.
Though we will never grasp God’s transcendence, we cannot stop trying. Art and poetry tantalize us with glimpses of divinity. In this violent world, we must keep gesturing toward God. As the song of solidarity goes: “Give us bread, but give us roses.” People need bread to survive—our earthly bodies are sacred—but people also need roses, meaning that we cannot survive without beauty. As we feed the hungry and struggle for justice, we must also look to the Word. We must let ourselves be overwhelmed by the enormity of sacred mystery. Let the awe linger.
John the Baptist twice tells us that he did not know the man of whom he spoke. Even John did not fully know what he was talking about. He simply knew that he had glimpsed the Word made flesh because he had seen the Spirit. That was enough to convince him that he needed to spread the story. Following his example, let us gesture beyond ourselves, toward the most beautiful, inexplicable, non-linear, contradictory story. As John reminds us, the story begins with the Word.
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