Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of John (1: 1-18) which begins: In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things came to be; not one thing had its being but through him.

Fr Paul says the Prologue of St John, we hear today, has a special place in Christian theology. For centuries was recited at the end of the Mass as summing up the whole work of redemption.

It begins with God’s creation by the Word and ends with the completion of the purpose of creation through the grace and truth of Jesus Christ.

In the centre comes the incarnation, which enables and invites those who accept Christ to become children of God. The gospel-story of Mark begins at the baptism of Jesus, and the voice from heaven declaring that he is God’s son.

Matthew and Luke add the infancy-stories to show that Jesus possessed and manifested these divine qualities right from his birth. John goes back beyond this, to meditate on the ultimate part in both creation and its fulfilment of the Word who became flesh.

Perhaps the most exultant cry of all is ‘we have seen his glory’, for glory belongs rightly to God alone.

This statement contains the paradox that Christ as a human being made visible this divine glory, and that it was his own glory, witnessed by the followers among whom he lived and moved.