About Today December 27 Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist Feast St. John was a fisherman with his father, Zebedee, and brother, James, at the Sea of Galilee. To the brothers, Jesus bestowed the title “sons of thunder.” This beloved disciple participated in many of Jesus’ more private events including the raising of Jairus’ daughter, the Transfiguration, and the tender bestowing of his Mother Mary to St. John at the foot of the cross. He is credited with writing the Fourth Gospel. St. John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” was the only one of the apostles to die not of martyrdom but of old age, around the year 100. Still, he has been honored as a martyr from the earliest days after his death, because of an incident related by Tertullian, in which John, while in Rome, was placed in a pot of boiling oil but emerged unharmed. The love which Jesus bears is never barren. Of this his sufferings and death are the strongest proof. As St. John had the happiness to be distinguished by Christ in his holy love, so was he also in its glorious effects. From the tractates on the first letter of John by Saint Augustine, bishop Life itself was revealed in the flesh Our message is the Word of life. We announce what existed from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our own eyes, what we have touched with our own hands. Who could touch the Word with his hands unless the Word was made flesh and lived among us? Now this Word, whose flesh was so real that he could be touched by human hands, began to be flesh in the Virgin Mary’s womb; but he did not begin to exist at that moment. We know this from what John says: What existed from the beginning. Notice how John’s letter bears witness to his Gospel, which you just heard a moment ago: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. Someone might interpret the phrase the Word of life to mean a word about Christ, rather than Christ’s body itself which was touched by human hands. But consider what comes next: and life itself was revealed. Christ therefore is himself the Word of life. And how was this life revealed? It existed from the beginning, but was not revealed to men, only to angels, who looked upon it and feasted upon it as their own spiritual bread. But what does Scripture say? Mankind ate the bread of angels. Life itself was therefore revealed in the flesh. In this way what was visible to the heart alone could become visible also to the eye, and so heal men’s hearts. For the Word is visible to the heart alone, while flesh is visible to bodily eyes as well. We already possessed the means to see the flesh, but we had no means of seeing the Word. The Word was made flesh so that we could see it, to heal the part of us by which we could see the Word. John continues: And we are witnesses and we proclaim to you that eternal life which was with the Father and has been revealed among us – one might say more simply “revealed to us.” We proclaim to you what we have heard and seen. Make sure that you grasp the meaning of these words. The disciples saw our Lord in the flesh, face to face; they heard the words he spoke, and in turn they proclaimed the message to us. So we also have heard, although we have not seen. Are we then less favored than those who both saw and heard? If that were so, why should John add: so that you too may have fellowship with us? They saw, and we have not seen; yet we have fellowship with them, because we and they share the same faith. And our fellowship is with God the Father and Jesus Christ his Son. And we write this to you to make your joy complete – complete in that fellowship, in that love and in that unity. Feast of Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist Lectionary: 697 Reading 1 1 JN 1:1-4 Beloved: What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands concerns the Word of life — for the life was made visible; we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was made visible to us— what we have seen and heard we proclaim now to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; for our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing this so that our joy may be complete. Responsorial Psalm PS 97:1-2, 5-6, 11-12 R. (12) Rejoice in the Lord, you just! The LORD is king; let the earth rejoice; let the many isles be glad. Clouds and darkness are around him, justice and judgment are the foundation of his throne. R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just! The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the LORD of all the earth. The heavens proclaim his justice, and all peoples see his glory. R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just! Light dawns for the just; and gladness, for the upright of heart. Be glad in the LORD, you just, and give thanks to his holy name. R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just! R. Alleluia, alleluia. We praise you, O God, we acclaim you as Lord; the glorious company of Apostles praise you. R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel JN 20:1A AND 2-8 On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we do not know where they put him.” So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. Duns Scotus Erigena “What was from the beginning...what we have seen and heard we proclaim in turn to you” (1Jn 1,1-3) Peter and John both run to the tomb. Christs tomb is the Holy Scripture, in which the most hidden mysteries of his divinity and of his humanity are defended - if I might say so -by a wall of rock. But John runs faster than Peter, for the power of a contemplation that has been totally purified penetrates the secrets of the divine works with a more piercing and sharper eye than the power of an action still in need of purification. Nevertheless Peter is the first to enter; John follows. Both run and both enter. Here Peter is the image of faith and John represents intelligence...Faith, then, is the first who must enter the tomb, an image of Holy Scripture, and intelligence must follow... Peter, who also represents the practice of virtues, sees with the power of both faith and action the Son of God enclosed, in a marvellous and ineffable way, in the confines of flesh. John, who represents the sublime contemplation of the truth, admires the Word of God, perfect in himself and infinite in his origin - that is to say in his Father. Peter, led by divine revelation, looks at both eternal and temporal things united in Christ; John contemplates and proclaims the eternity of the Word so as to make it known to the faithful. Therefore I say that John is a spiritual eagle who sees God; I call him ‘theologian’. He is above the whole creation, visible and invisible; he goes beyond all intellectual faculties and he enters deified into God who shares with him his own divine life.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 10:00:38 +0000
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