NOTE: I would like to devote the daily meditations of the next few weeks to systematically working through a biblical book again. On this occasion, I have chosen the Letters of St John. However, those who prefer – or would additionally like – to listen to a meditation that corresponds to the biblical readings of the day, can find the respective links at the end of the text.
1 Jn 1,1-4
“We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life. This life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us. We declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.”
In these words we can perceive the author’s great astonishment. It is the astonishment and inner shock of having seen, contemplated, heard, and felt the source of life itself: our Lord Jesus Christ. The unimaginable happened: God became man and came into the world so that we could know Him, allow ourselves to be loved and instructed by Him, and respond to Him with our love and service.
How close God comes to His children, who lost their natural and blissful communion with Him after the Fall! After the loss of Paradise, few people were able to live in close proximity to God. Many remained trapped in ignorance and succumbed to their fragile nature, often falling into Satan’s deceptions, who persecuted them as he did our parents in Paradise, wanting to deprive them of their inheritance.
However, with Jesus’ arrival in the world, His disciples have good news to share that far surpasses what God had already revealed to the people of Israel in the Old Testament. Although it had been announced by the prophets and foretold in the mysterious sayings of seers, everything now comes to fulfillment and becomes reality. All the senses could verify it. It is an irrevocable reality: the Son of God came into the world and made all things new. In Him, everything we need to know to attain salvation is revealed. He is here! With Him comes life itself, and with it the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, the reign of God on earth, and victory over sin and death.
The apostle John testifies once again: “This life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us.”
He then emphasizes the communion that arises from the Incarnation of Jesus. Unlike what happens in a natural family, which is predetermined by blood ties, this communion is based on a common faith and gives rise to a spiritual family, as Jesus makes us understand in the Gospel: “Whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother, sister, and mother” (Mt 12:50).
It is a communion that extends over the whole earth and becomes a reality in the Church, which embraces all nations and peoples. It is a communion that includes the angels and the redeemed in heaven, and even those who have yet to undergo the final purification after death, but who are already saved. This communion comes from God, and all people are called to it through Christ’s coming. This unmistakable communion arises when people hear God’s call, convert to Him, and embrace the faith.
God’s plan of salvation is that He desires “everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tm 2:4), and He has entrusted to the Church the mission of proclaiming throughout the world this event that St. John describes with such wonder in his Epistle, and of inviting people to live in conscious communion with God.
Those who understand it, even if only in part, discover great joy and have ample reason to praise God unceasingly for His goodness and mercy.
______________________________________________________
Meditation on the Gospel of the day: https://en.elijamission.net/attentive-listening-to-the-word-of-god-2/
