Saturday in the Seventh Week of Easter, June 7, 2025

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.

One of the strongest proofs that John the Apostle wrote the fourth Gospel is how hard the author tries to hide himself when relating what he remembers Jesus saying and doing.  Ironically, as earnestly as the author tries to hide, throughout his Gospel he insists that what he relates is the memories of an eyewitness.  One would expect that he would give his testimony more authority simply by identifying himself by name at some point.  But he cannot, because he will not do anything to draw the slightest bit of attention away from Jesus.  He is everything.  And that is the sign of a true lover of the Lord: it is always and only about Jesus.  This takes humility too.  And humility meaning an honest appraisal of oneself in relation to others, John shows a thorough understanding of Jesus as the Son of the Father, the Word who was with the God who spoke him from all eternity.  It is breathtaking to read John’s Gospel, seeing Jesus through his eyes all the while knowing that this is the God who came down from heaven and who did so out of pure love.

And John knew that Jesus loved him for he referred to himself as “one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved” (John 13, 23).  Not that John thought he was the only disciple Jesus loved but that John experienced the love of Jesus more fully than the others did.  And it was this experience of the Lord’s love that enabled John to love him as passionately as he did — the only Apostle to stand under the Lord’s Cross, and the first to reach the empty tomb when Mary Magdalene brought her news to them.  And he was able to experience the Lord’s love so fully because he gave himself to the Lord so completely, beginning on the day when John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold the Lamb of God” (John 1, 36).

“We love God because he first loved us” (1 John 4, 19).  Let us not hesitate to pray for the gift to know God’s love and to be able to love him as he loves us — with our whole being.