On this Sunday we find the same text as on Christmas Day and, with the help of the Evangelist John, once again we look at history from above in order to grasp its secret from the deepest point of view. The secret of history is the Logos of God, the Word always and forever turned towards God who – in his incarnation – draws every creature into this same arcane movement of attention and ecstatic and transforming love. Sirach celebrates the incarnation of divine wisdom which leaves its hyperuranian and haughtily autarchic and detached seats and fixes its tent in Jacob, indeed he came to live among us. It is not easy to understand this excess of presence accustomed as we are to feeling God far away, yet this divine company is our treasure and our hope. On this Sunday it is as if we were invited to look at the mystery of the Incarnation from a more essential and even meta-historical point of view: «before the centuries, from the beginning» (Sir 24: 9). It is from this point of view of eternity that it is even stronger to consider how God through the incarnation of the Word has “taken root in the midst of a glorious people” (Sir 24:12). Of course, contemplating this «the good pleasure of his will» (Eph 3: 5) requires on our part a correspondence and a sensitivity that is equal to the depth of the gift we receive in Christ «to be holy and immaculate in his presence in love» ( Eph 3, 4). In this journey of holiness, in the sense of welcoming that principle of sanctification which is the presence of the Lord Jesus through his Spirit in our life, the desire to be recognized among «his own» is part and in a certain way a sign of it. (Jn 1, 11) who «but welcomed him»!

Commentary by b. Michael David, osb Community of the Koinonia de la Visitation

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey