LAST DAY OF THE YEAR: BYE 2020
Introduction
Today the liturgy fits in very well with the celebration of New Year’s Eve: it both looks forward to the end of time (first reading) and back to the beginning: to the Word that created all and came among people as the living Word, Jesus, to make a new beginning with us. And that’s life: the end of what is past, a new beginning to be made ever anew. It was a mixture of joys shared together and miseries that were lighter when they too were borne together. And a time for which, after all, we are grateful to one another and to God. A turning point is also a time of hope. The past is gone; we look forward. We say goodbye and we welcome what is coming with hope, for the Lord is with us; we resume our journey together as God’s pilgrim people.
Opening Prayer
Loving Father, You gave us your Son Jesus Christ and let him share our poverty. He brought us grace upon grace, for all that comes from you is a free gift. Accept our thanks for the moments when we accepted your gifts and shared them with one another. Accept our thanks for the times we listened attentively to your Son’s words and put them into practice. Help us go forward with hope and joy with joy and mutual encouragement. with the companion in life you have given us, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen!
1 Reading: 1 John 2:18-21
Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. Thus we know this is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of our number; if they had been, they would have remained with us. Their desertion shows that none of them was of our number. But you have the anointing that comes from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you not because you do not know the truth but because you do, and because every lie is alien to the truth.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 96:1-2, 11-12, 13
R. (11a) Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice!
Give to the LORD, you families of nations, give to the LORD glory and praise; give to the LORD the glory due his name! R.
Bring gifts, and enter his courts; worship the LORD in holy attire. Tremble before him, all the earth. R.
Say among the nations: The LORD is king. He has made the world firm, not to be moved; he governs the peoples with equity. R.
Alleluia
R: Alleluia, alleluia. A holy day has dawned upon us. Come, you nations, and adore the Lord. Today a great light has come upon the earth. R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel John 1:1-18
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’” For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known.
Commentary
The prologue to John’s Gospel, read at today’s Mass, offers four points for our reflection. First, it highlights the eternity of Jesus Christ. In fact, he is actually called God, an unusual designation in the New Testament since “God” was initially seen as applying only to Yahweh. In his eternal Godhead, Jesus is present with the Father in the whole process of creation. In fact, as God’s wisdom, he is the blueprint that guides the whole creative process.
Second, Jesus enters the world as the life giver; he confers the Spirit, described variously in John’s Gospel as light, life, or water. It is the Spirit that lifts humans to a whole new plateau of existence; it is life in God. If the law given to Moses was a gift, the life of the Spirit is called simply “grace and truth.”
Third, Jesus came in the flesh. Contrary to some of the thinking within the early Johannine community, he was not simply an apparition or vision. To those who looked with disdain on anything human or material (perhaps those identified with the antichrists of today’s episodes), there was only one response. “The Word became flesh and lived among us” (John 1:14). He was man in the full sense of the term.
Finally, John the Baptist was not the light, as some may have suggested. He had a clearly subordinate role as the forerunner, the one who prepared the way of the Lord. There is some New Testament evidence for a strong advocacy of John’s baptism, perhaps because Christ himself had received it. The Gospel of John, however, is clearly interested in setting the record straight.
While John is rich in its very positive approach, it has a very distinctive apologetic. It wants to uphold the eternity of Christ while never losing sight of his humanity. He is the saviour and life giver in a way that far outdistances anyone from Moses to John the Baptist. When we consider all that the term “Jesus Christ” connotes, it is not surprising that there were some failures in articulating the Lord and his mission adequately in the early years of the church’s life. But error often leads to gain—in this case, a clearer expression of belief. The prologue to John’s Gospel, even with its soaring beauty, serves a very practical purpose.
Intercessions
In gratitude to our generous Father for all his blessings and graces received in the past year, we pray:
– For all those with whom we are united in one common friendship and concern, that he may keep us all in his love, we pray:
– For all whom we have disappointed in the past, for those whom we have hurt or neglected, and for those who have pained and irritated us, we pray:
– For those who have lost someone dear to them, that their hope in Christ may give them strength; for those who have died this year, that they may live in the Lord’s peace, we pray:
– And for all of us here, that we may be grateful for life, for all the joys we have experienced, and for one another, we pray:
God, let your Son speak his word among us and live among us, now and for ever.
Prayer over the Gifts
Loving Father, it is easy for us here to break this bread and to share it with one another, to drink this cup and offer it to one another. As we offer you these gifts we pray you for strength, for it is difficult for us the whole year long, to keep sharing ourselves with one another to offer our hand to give and receive help and to forget ourselves for the sake of others. Let us be always each other’s food and drink through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen!
Prayer after Communion
God our Father, in this celebration we have looked back to the past, to what is done and gone. With Jesus in our midst we look now forward to the future. Let neither the past nor the present, nor the future, neither joys nor sorrows ever separate us from him. Let you Son be the center of our lives and the bond that binds us to you and to one another, in faith, hope and lasting love. Go with us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen!
Blessing
Let us go in the peace of the Lord. May the Lord be with you wherever you go. May he bless your coming and your going, your work and your care, your joys and your suffering. As he blessed you the past year 2020, may he bless you even more in the New Year 2021: The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen!