Saturday in the 7th Week of Easter, May 30, 2020

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.

This evening we will begin to offer Mass in public again, with the Vigil Mass for the Solemnity of Pentecost.  The bishop has ordered various precautions for the parishes in our diocese, such as occupancy rules, use of masks except for reception of Holy Communion, and sanitation of the pews between Masses.  At our parish, music will be minimal, and at some Masses, not at all.  I heard a large number of confessions this morning.  I think it’s a sign of many people preparing to return to Mass.  

“Peter turned and saw the disciple following whom Jesus loved.”  The Fathers universally knew this disciple to be the Apostle John, the author of this Gospel.  The words of Jesus and Peter that John places at the very end of his Gospel make a very strange conclusion.  First, Jesus asks Peter if he loves him, then Jesus describes the death by which Peter will glorify God, and here Peter asks Jesus about John, who is nearby.  St. John ends his Gospel not with the Great Commission, as in Matthew’s, or with the Ascension and a summary of the subsequent work of the Apostles, as in Mark’s and Luke’s, but with the spotlight on Peter and John.  It makes for an anticlimactic ending.  

To understand this, we must consider that the deaths of the Apostles must have badly shaken the early Christians, many of whom expected the Lord Jesus to return soon, certainly within the lifetimes of his first followers.  The death of Peter must have come as a particularly hard blow, as he was the “rock” upon whom the Lord had said he would build his Church.  At the end of his Gospel, John shows how the Lord not only knew that Peter would die before the final judgment, but also how he would die, that he told this to Peter beforehand, and that Peter, knowing his end from the Lord, followed him even so.  John included this scene to console and to reassure his readers that all was as it was meant to be.  And as Peter persevered to the end, so must all Christians.  As a side note, this would mean that John had to have written his Gospel shortly after reports of Peter’s death reached him, about the years 63-64 A.D.

Next, John presents a conversation between Jesus and Peter regarding himself.  This account contrasts with the prophecy of Peter’s death.  The question of Why did Peter die? changes to, Why is John still alive?  It seems that since John outlived the other Apostles, some of his followers began to think that John would live until the Second Coming.  John himself does not know how much longer he will live, and because no one knows when the Lord will come again, it was entirely plausible that John might be alive when this happened.  At the same tome, John downplays the possibility, showing how Jesus definitely did not prophesy this.

St. John remained in Jerusalem, possibly excluding short mission trips, until at least the year 51, when the Apostles met together in Jerusalem to discuss whether Gentile converts needed to follow the Mosaic Law.  Tradition holds that the Virgin Mary remained in his care the rest of her life on earth.  According to further tradition, she ended her days in Jerusalem and was assumed into heaven there, although a contrary tradition has it that this occurred in Ephesus, where John had gone to preach.  John is said to have been persecuted under the Emperor Domitian and was finally exiled to the island Patmos, where he received the visions which he wrote into the book we know as The Book of Revelation.  After the death of the emperor, John was able to return to Ephesus, which he had made his headquarters, and he died there.  A local legend has it that John did not actually die; in his old age, John had a tomb prepared and he walked into it one day and had it sealed.  It is said that he sleeps there, and will continue sleeping until the Lord comes.  During the Middle Ages, the local people showed the tomb to the crusaders, and pointed to steam rising out of the hill in which the tomb was set.  They said that that this resulted from John breathing in his sleep.