It really only takes 14 verses to understand EVERYTHING going on around us

ET VERBUM CARO FACTUM EST… “And the Word was made flesh…”

Today is the 7th Day in the Octave of Christmas, and Commemoration of Pope Saint Sylvester I, whose reign saw the end of the Roman persecutions and the blossoming of the Church. He also convened the First Council of Nicaea, which quashed the Arian heresy, and declared Christ co-eternal and of the same essence as the Father. Christ has both a human nature and a divine nature, joined in the Hypostatic Union within the Second Divine Person of the Holy Trinity, and His divine nature is full and infinite, not inferior to the divinity of God the Father in any way. Cheers and Merry Christmas, indeed.

Jesus Christ, fully God and fully Man, came down from Heaven to teach us a thing or two. He explained some astonishing things, and some things that were hard to hear. The two hardest things for which He lost the most disciples over? The truth about the Eucharist and the truth about divorce.

On the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord, at the Third Mass of Christmas Day, the Gospel reading is the Last Gospel. That is, the first 14 verses of the Gospel of St. John. These 14 verses are read at the end of every Traditional Latin Mass, but the “reformers” thought it was just too much. It isn’t used in the Novus Ordo at all (it was already removed in the 1965 Latin Missal). There is no way this wasn’t intentionally malicious.

Do yourself a favor: Meditate on these 14 verses; there is so much wisdom to be gained by letting them sink in over and over. The entire Gospel, the entirety of salvation history, up to and including everything going on around us today, is summed up in these words. When you feel alone, lost, losing hope, defeated… come back to these words. When you look at the chessboard of life/country/diocese/Church and your king is seemingly in check… come back to these words.

Happy secular new year, folks. Faith, Hope, and Love. Fast and Pray.

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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to give testimony of the light, that all men might believe through him. He was not the light, but was to give testimony of the light. That was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name. Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Deo gratias.

4 thoughts on “It really only takes 14 verses to understand EVERYTHING going on around us”

  1. So true, Mr. Docherty. To this day, I make a point of fervently praying the Last Gospel with every mass. What a pity such essential truth was one of the very first things to be eliminated post-Vatican 2.

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