How did it all begin? We can ask this question about many things. The most important answer to the question of beginnings is that it all began with God. “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth—and the earth was without form or shape, with darkness over the abyss and a mighty wind sweeping over the waters” (Genesis 1:1-2). Even before this “beginning” was God and his Word as we hear in today’s Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1-1).
As this opening hymn of John’s Gospel relates, this Word became flesh. God became a part of our world and our human history in the person of Jesus Christ. When we see and experience Jesus we see and experience the one true God: “we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only-begotten Son, full of grace and truth.” Glory is the felt or visible presence of God, the real presence of God. John reiterates this point in Jesus’ Last Supper dialogue with his disciples: “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”
This teaching is so simple and basic but sometimes we forget what Jesus is telling us or we forget it in the maze of laws, customs and traditions. What does God look like? God looks like Jesus! How does God act? Is God harsh, angry, and vindictive? Jesus shows us by His words and actions the one true God. Jesus, thus God, shows “compassion for children and for the poor, for the sick and for sinners, and he became a neighbor to the oppressed and the afflicted.” (Eucharistic Prayer for Various Needs IV).
Our beginning also starts with the love of God. God is with us always and “walks with us on the journey of life.” (Eucharistic Prayer for Various Needs IV).