Commentary by St. Paulinus of Nola

 




"In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1) 

"He [St. John] is the last Evangelist chronologically, but he is the first to begin with the Source of the Mystery, for he alone of the Four Rivers begins his course from the Very Highest and Divine Source, thundering forth from a lofty cloud: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.' He rises higher than Moses, who with mental eye extends the boundaries of knowledge to the origin of the world and the beginnings of visible creatures. He flies higher than the other Evangelists, who begin the Gospel of the Resurrection with the human lineage of the Saviour, or from the prefiguring sacrifice of the Law, or from the prophetic proclamation of Christ's Forerunner, John the Baptist. He reached the Very Heavens and did not halt even at the Angels, but mounting above Archangels and all created beings--Virtues, Principalities, Dominations, Thrones---he guided his course with lofty mind to the Very Creator." 

[St. Paulinus of Nola (+431), Letter 21 to Amandus, sec. 3]

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