Eternal Son: Genesis reading; Psalm; John 1

In all things it is necessary to believe the word of God, for God is truthful in everything. We must believe especially that there is a Son of God, and that he exists not only at the moment when he is about to appear in the world, but even before the world’s creation. (Jn 17:5; Col 1:15-17)

Moses, who first foretold him, says in Hebrew — according to the reading handed down among us — a form whose sense is: ‘The Son was in the beginning; God then created the heaven and the earth.’ (Gen 1:1) The prophet also certifies this: ‘I have begotten you before the morning star, and your name is before the sun’ (Ps 110:3 LXX sense) — and that is before the world’s making, since the stars were formed together with the world. And again: ‘Blessed is he who was before he became man.’

For with God the Son was in the beginning before the world’s creation; but for us, it is since he appeared to us. Before that, for us he was not, because we did not know him. Therefore his disciple John declares that he is the Son of God, that he was with the Father before the world was, that through him all creatures exist, saying: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made.’ (Jn 1:1-3) He shows clearly that he who in the beginning was the Word with the Father, through whom all things were made, is indeed his Son.