Following is the text of the meditation by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, marking the second Sunday after Christmas, dated January 5, 2025: 

The Prologue of John, (John 1:1-18) which we read this Sunday, serves as the foundation, the basis on which the evangelist John then builds the rest of his Gospel.

However, the prolog is not only the basis, the principle of the Gospel: it is also the basis and the principle of our life of faith, of our relationship with the Lord: it gives us the coordinates on which we then move, a point of reference to which we return again and again to check the conformity of our life with that of the Lord.

The Prologue has two levels. The first is that of revelation.

In the prolog there are many terms that speak of a God who reveals Himself: Word, light, testimony, truth, right up to the last verse in which John clarifies that “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” (John 1: 18)

So the basis is this: God reveals Himself, makes Himself known, and He does this by taking the initiative Himself, by choosing to meet man.

The second level that we encounter in the Prologue is that of redemption: we find many terms such as life, grace, fullness, power, sons, procreation.

All terms that speak precisely of redemption, and of a redemption that expresses itself in a true life, in a fullness of life (John 1:16) and in the fact that all this is given to us (“From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace”). These two levels are constantly intertwined: there is a truth that is revealed and a grace that is given, and the two moments coincide, they happen together.

Redemption can only happen when God reveals Himself.

These two levels meet in the historical event of the incarnation of the Son of God, in the moment in which the eternal Word of God takes on human flesh, our weakness, our finitude.

Redemption is precisely this event, this reality: God did not keep his life, his grace, to Himself, but mingled it with our humanity, and he did this through a new creation event that was as great and important as the creation of the world at the beginning of time.

So revelation and redemption are intertwined and require someone to be open to this gift. There is in fact a third level, a third group of words that runs through this very special text and that has to do with the reception of this event, this revealed redemption: recognize, believe, see, welcome...

Redemption is possible because God reveals Himself. But redemption is accomplished when someone accepts it and opens themselves to the gift: These, John says, are born again to a new life, which is that of the children of God. (“But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.”(John 1: 12)

The Prologue informs us that none of this can be taken for granted, quite the opposite. The light comes, but not everyone allows themselves to be enlightened, and it happens that some prefer to remain in their own darkness, that they choose not to come to the light.

In v. 9, John also specifies that the light that comes is the true light, the light that enlightens everyone: "The true light has come into the world, the light that enlightens everyone."

He tells us that the light is true precisely because it has the ability to enlighten everyone without excluding anyone. It is not a light that is only good for some and not for others. Its light is good for everyone, and that is precisely why it can be called true.

But it also tells us that if there is a true light, there may also be lights that are not so true, partial lights, blinding lights, false lights that do not give us a clear view of life.

Redemption consists in recognizing the true light, the light that makes life grow in us.

All the rest of the Gospel will show us how this light falls on the lives of very different people, illuminating them and giving everyone the strength to be born again, from above, to become children of God.

+ Pierbattista