On Jn 1:1–51 The challenge of explaining this text to the members of the congregation 1. Thinking about what we have just heard in the reading from the apostle—that a merely natural human being does not grasp what pertains to the spirit of God (1 Cor 2:14)2—and reflecting further in the midst of this crowd of Your Graces,3 it is inevitable that many will be merely natural, still of a materialist cast of mind and still not able to raise themselves to a spiritual understanding. Hence, I am