Saturday in the Seventh Week of Easter, May 27, 2023

John 21, 20-25

Peter turned and saw the disciple following whom Jesus loved, the one who had also reclined upon his chest during the supper and had said, “Master, who is the one who will betray you?” When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus said to him, “What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours? You follow me.” So the word spread among the brothers that that disciple would not die. But Jesus had not told him that he would not die, just “What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours?”  It is this disciple who testifies to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written.

“Peter turned and saw the disciple following whom Jesus loved, the one who had also reclined upon his chest during the supper.”  From ancient times the Church has understood this disciple as John, the son of Zebedee and the brother of James.  This John is mentioned by name in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and is included by the Lord Jesus in a privileged subgroup of the Apostles which consisted of him, his brother James, and Peter.  Jesus took these apart to witness some of his most astounding miracles, such as the raising of the daughter of Jairus from the dead and the Transfiguration.  Jesus also takes them with him apart from the others when he prays in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Mark tells us that Jesus had a nickname for James and John, calling them “the sons of thunder”.  And yet, in the Gospel of John, his never never arises, and the only time we are advised of his existence at all comes when, after the Resurrection, “the sons of Zebedee” go fishing with Peter and four other Apostles.  The Gospel according to John has been held since the days of the early Church to have been written by this John, the Apostle.  We might ask why John does not mention his own name in the Gospel.  But Luke, the author of a Gospel and a fellow missionary with St. Paul, never mentions himself by name even when he is part of the story.  When he writes of actions in which he takes part, he simply writes “we” did this.  He minimizes his part to the point of anonymity.  However, Theophilus, whom Luke addresses as the recipient of the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, knows who he is and so does not need Luke to point himself out by name.  And Luke, who is writing about the Apostles, does not make the story about him.  John seems to act in the same way.  The people for whom he was writing his Gospel originally knew very well who he was, and John is so unwilling to move the spotlight off Jesus that he mentions himself only as a witness to the truth about the Lord’s life and identity.  Because he wants his readers to know that Jesus could be touched, heard, and seen, he allows himself, without using his name, to tell that he had touched, heard, and seen him.  And this is what the true disciple does: “He must increase and I must decrease” (John 3, 30).  The disciple lets Jesus so shine forth from his words and actions that he himself disappears into him and the Lord alone is visible.  This is a work of grace.

“Lord, what about him?” John must have written his Gospel before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.  We might say that he wrote it after the martyrdom of the first bishop of Jerusalem, James the son of Alphaeus in 62 A.D. because the conversation John records between Jesus and Peter seems to deal with the question of whether the end of the world will come before the death of the last Apostle.  James the son of Alphaeus and John would have been the last Apostles left in Jerusalem and perhaps in both Judea and Galilee.  The other Apostles had already been martyred (Peter and Paul died in Rome around the time James died in .Jerusalem) or gone far abroad so that of the Twelve, only John was left.  John answered their question with the words of Jesus: “What if I want him to remain until I come?”  That is, the Lord does not say that the world would end before the last Apostle died, but neither did he say that it would: “You follow me.”  The disciple of the Lord should be aware that the world will end and he should prepare for it, but not be obsessed by the fact.  He should concentrate on following the Lord and doing his will on each day of life the Lord gives him.

“It is this disciple who testifies to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true.”  It was fashionable for nineteenth and twentieth century scholars to sniff at these words and declare that they prove John the Apostle did not write the Gospel because of the “we know” and “his testimony”.  These same scholars allege that the Gospels, as we now have them, are the result of intensive editorial work by communities of believers in the generation or two after the Apostles.  Yet, it does not seem to them that an editor could have added this to the Gospel John had written.  In fact, the person to whom John dictated his Gospel could have added these words.  This seems likely since the Gospels, once they were written, were quickly copied and recopied.  If this gloss had appeared only in a later copy, it would not have been found in earlier ones.  But the earliest copies we have contain it.  And the stamp of the Holy See affirms that these words are divinely inspired and canonical just as are all the other words in the Gospel.

“There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written.”  This is a most marvelous way to end this Gospel and the collection of the four Gospels.  It opens up for us the broad horizon of the life of the Lord and his tireless campaign to bring eternal life to the people of this world.  When we read the Gospels, not only should we pay attention to all that they tell us of the Lord, but all that, out of necessity, they do not tell us: the story of how Mary Magdalene’s seven demons were cast out, and what the Lord said and did in Chorazin and Bethany, for instance.  So many powerful words, so many astounding works.  Of all that the Gospels could tell us, we have only that which is strictly necessary for us.  All else that we would like to know, we must wait for until it is revealed to us on the last day.