Wednesday in the Octave of Christmas, December 27, 2023

John 20, 1; 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.

St. John the Apostle, his older brother James, and his parents seem to have come from Bethany in Galilee but who moved to Capernaum in order to make a living as fishermen.  The two brothers were pious Jews, very strong-willed, and eager for action.  They were also quick to act.  And when they, in Galilee, heard about John the Baptist preaching and baptizing in Judea, they went to see.  John, at least, became a disciple of John and stayed close to him.  He would have been sixteen or so at the time, not yet old enough to marry.  While assisting John the Baptist with his work, Jesus of Nazareth walked not far away.  Jesus had been baptized, then had been driven into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan, and then had come back to the Jordan River, probably living in a niche in the rocky hills.  Directed by John the Baptist, John went with another fisherman from Capernaum, Andrew, and approached Jesus.  At the Lord’s invitation, they spent the day with him.  After this, Andrew, very much impressed by the Lord, went to tell his brother Simon about him.  We are not told but it seems probable that John would have found his brother James and related his impressions.  These brothers and a few others began to follow the Lord and shortly after they joined him, they found themselves at a wedding in Cana.  St. Albert the Great, citing “the holy Fathers” tells us that this was John’s own wedding, and that after he learned of the miracle Jesus performed there, he left his bride to follow him and remained a virgin all his life.  While an attractive idea, John did not come from Cana and so the wedding feast would have taken place in his house in Capernaum, so it seems less likely.

A few months after Cana and a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover, John and James returned to Capernaum and their work as fishermen.  They had not yet become permanently attached to Jesus yet.  This came very early one morning as the dawn broke and they were in the boat with their father.  Jesus summoned them to become “fishers of men”.  What the Lord does here turns discipleship on its head.  All through history, young people  sought out and employ the services of some master, whether a teacher of practical skills, of philosophy, or of religion.  But here, the Master seeks out his students.  He shows in this way that the Master is a servant, and that those who follow him are likewise training to become servants.

James and John became prominent among the Apostles for their impulsiveness and desire to learn.  Jesus called them “the sons of thunder”, and they were known to want to call down the wrath of heaven upon towns that did not welcome their Master.  John, in particular, is beloved by Jesus.  And John, experiencing the love of Jesus, learned to love him very personally.  This experience of the Lord’s personal love informs John’s Gospel and his First Letter: “We love [him], because he first loved us” (1 John 4, 19).

This love caused John to follow the arrested Jesus back to Jerusalem where he waited outside the high priest’s house, where the Jewish leaders interrogated him.  Later, he followed the Lord as he carried his Cross to Golgotha.  And so great was his love for Jesus that it surpassed any shame he might have felt as he stood under the Lord’s Cross.  There was nothing he could do for Jesus, but he did not want to be apart from him.  Love follows the beloved.  And there Jesus gave him the care of the Blessed Mother.  After the Body of Jesus was laid to rest in the tomb, John returned to the house of Mary, the mother of Mark, where he and the other Apostles had eaten the Last Supper with Jesus.  He slept there that night and the next, spending the long days discussing the events of Good Friday with the others.  And then after dawn on Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene, who had also been on Golgotha on that dreadful day of the crucifixion. Came pounding on the door of the house.  She spoke wildly in her excitement and confusion and in response, Peter and John ran to the tomb to see what had happened.  John actually went down into the tomb.  It was a new tomb and no other remains were kept in it.  But neither was the Lord’s Body present.  He did see the wrappings and his shroud very neatly folded and arranged, which no grave robber would have bothered with.  He went away with Peter, wondering.  And then that evening, he saw the Lord.

Although tradition tells us that John wrote his Gospel the last of the four, his exactness in its details as to where and when certain events took place give evidence that he wrote it within ten years of the Ascension.  It certainly could not have been written after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in the year 70 because he would have then no reason to be so exact.  He writes of places and things that the early first century Jewish Christian could have gone and seen.  His Gospel almost certainly was written for Judean Christians as well because of his emphasis on the deeds the Lord performed there, just as Matthew, writing for Galilean Christians, emphasizes what the Lord did in that land.

John and many of the other Apostles stayed and shepherded the early Church in Jerusalem for a few years after Pentecost.  Eventually, according to very firm tradition, he made his way into Syria and Asia Minor, bringing the Blessed Mother with him.  He is said to have settled at a time in Ephesus.  At some point he was sent into exile on the tiny island of Patmos in the western Mediterranean Sea, where he experienced the visions he recorded in The Book of Revelation.  Certain stories, related by the early historian Eusebius, tell us that John retained something of his fiery temperament, responding with vehemence to heretics when they challenged him.  He is said to have died in his old age, the only Apostle not martyred.

We give thanks to Almighty God for the witness of St. John the Apostle  who provides such a vivid portrait of the Lord Jesus and who teaches us steadfast love of him.