21 December 2026 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1
Four days before Christmas the Church reads the opening of John's Gospel. Before Bethlehem there is eternity: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… All things came into being through him… The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” The child in the manger is the eternal Son, Creator of all.
Paul asks the Ephesians to “pray in the Spirit at all times” and to pray for him, “that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.” In these last days of waiting, prayer prepares the heart to receive the Word made flesh.
Theme: “The light shines in the darkness.”
The Prologue of John: the eternal Word who comes as a child.
“Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.” Genesis 1:3
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1
Apply: Read John 1:1–14 slowly today.
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” Isaiah 9:2
“In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” John 1:4–5
Apply: Bring one dark situation into Christ's light in prayer.
“He said to me, “You are my son; today I have begotten you.”” Psalm 2:7
“All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.” John 1:3
Apply: Pray the Creed slowly, pausing at “begotten, not made”.
The Word through whom all was made is coming as a child.
Let his light shine in us.
Take-home resolution: Read the Prologue each day until Christmas.
Dear friends, with four days to Christmas, St Paul asks us to pray: pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication; keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Pray also for me, so that I may make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel (Ephesians 6:18–19).
Paul wrote this from prison, in chains. Yet he does not ask for release; he asks for boldness to speak. Prayer gave him courage.
In the Gospel we hear the opening of St John: in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things came into being through him. In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it (John 1:1–5).
This is the deepest meaning of Christmas. The baby in the manger is not merely a good person who later became holy. He is the eternal Word, through whom all things were made. The One who made the stars lies under the star of Bethlehem.
And the darkness did not overcome it. Whatever darkness you face this Christmas, sickness, loneliness, debt, grief, sin, the light of Christ is stronger. It may seem small, like one candle, but darkness cannot put it out.
These last days before Christmas, let us pray more: at home, in the church, before the crib. Let us pray for missionaries, for persecuted Christians, for our priests, that they may proclaim the Gospel with boldness. And let us light a candle in our home each evening, saying: the light shines in the darkness. Amen.
Children, Jesus is the light of the world. When you light the star or lamp this Christmas, remember that Jesus is the true Light!
Eternal Word of the Father, light of every person, shine in my darkness and prepare my heart to welcome you at Christmas. Amen.
With four days to go before the feast of the Lord's birth, the readings set two things side by side: a prisoner asking his friends to pray for him, and one of the highest statements in all of Scripture about who is coming. The Word who was with God from the beginning is the one the Church now waits to welcome in a manger. And so she prays, at all times.
Setting.
These verses come straight after the armour of God (6:10–17): the belt of truth, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit. Grammatically v. 18 still belongs to that sentence. Prayer is not one more piece of the armour. It is how the soldier stays awake inside it.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication.” (6:18)
Praying in the Spirit means letting the Spirit pray in us (see Romans 8:26). Paul asks for a whole life held in prayer, not a life without other work.
“Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel,” (6:19)
The great Apostle does not ask for release from prison. He asks for the right word at the right moment. Those who preach and teach need this prayer from their people.
“Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.” (6:20)
"As I must": the Gospel is a duty laid on him. Compare 1 Corinthians 9:16.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism quotes this verse when it teaches that we must pray constantly and that this is possible, because prayer and Christian life are one (CCC 2742, 2745). It describes prayer for others as a sharing in the prayer of Jesus, and it recalls that the first Christian communities lived this form of prayer intensely (CCC 2634–2636).
Setting.
The Gospel of John opens with its famous Prologue (1:1–18), which many scholars think has the form of a hymn. Matthew begins Jesus' story with Abraham, and Luke with Zechariah in the Temple. John goes back before all of them, to the first words of the Bible: "In the beginning" (Genesis 1:1).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (1:1)
The verb "was" in Greek describes a state that continues. At the beginning, the Word already was. He does not begin to exist; he is there when everything else begins.
“All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.” (1:3)
Nothing lies outside his reach, which is why nothing created is evil in itself. A note on the text: the earliest manuscripts have no punctuation. NRSV takes the end of v. 3 with v. 4, as many early writers did, while the Malayalam POC ends the sentence at v. 3.
“What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.” (1:3–4)
This light is for "all people", and not for one people alone.
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (1:5)
"Shines" is in the present tense. The verse is not only about the past. On the darkest day of our own lives, it is still true.
How the Church reads it.
The Council of Nicaea (325) confessed, against Arius, that the Son is true God, of one being with the Father, and that all things were made through him (CCC 242, 465). The Catechism teaches that God created everything by his eternal Word (CCC 291). St Augustine says in his Confessions that he found something like "In the beginning was the Word" in the books of the Platonists, but that he did not find there that the Word became flesh (in substance; Confessions 7.9). That is exactly what the Church is about to celebrate.
If the Word is God and is also with God, are there two Gods?
No. The Church confesses one God in three Persons. John holds together that the Word is distinct from the Father and that he is truly God. The Father and the Son are one in being (John 10:30), and they are distinct as Persons (CCC 253–254).