"Peter replied, 'Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.'"(John 6:68-69)Saint John, apostle and evangelist - Feast
Feast of the Day:
Saint of the Day:
SAINT JOHN
Apostle and Evangelist
(† c. 100)
Feast
St. John, the youngest of the apostles in age, was son of Zebedee. He was called to follow Christ on the banks of the Jordan during the first days of Our Lord's ministry. He was one of the privileged few present at the Transfiguration (with Peter and James) and the Agony in the garden.At the Last Supper his head rested on the bosom of Jesus, and in the hours of the Passion, when others fled or denied their Master, St. John kept his place by the side of Jesus, and at the last stood by the cross with Mary. From the cross the dying Saviour bequeathed his Mother to the care of the faithful apostle, who "from that hour took her to his own;" thus fitly, as St. Austin says, "to a virgin was the Virgin intrusted."
After the Ascension, St. John lived first at Jerusalem, and then at Ephesus. He was thrown by Domitian into a caldron of boiling oil, and is thus reckoned a martyr, though miraculously preserved from hurt.
Afterwards he was banished to the isle of Patmos, where he received the heavenly visions described in tine Apocalypse. He is the author of the Fourth Gospel, the Apocalypse, and three Epistles.
He died at a great age, in peace, at Ephesus, about the year 100.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Saint John, apostle and evangelist - Feast
First Letter of John 1:1-2 From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in—we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes, verified it with our own hands. The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen! And now we’re telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was, incredibly, this: The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us.
3-4 We saw it, we heard it, and now we’re telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!
Psalms 97:1 God rules: there’s something to shout over!
On the double, mainlands and islands—celebrate!
2 Bright clouds and storm clouds circle ’round him;
Right and justice anchor his rule.
5 The mountains take one look at God
And melt, melt like wax before earth’s Lord.
6 The heavens announce that he’ll set everything right,
And everyone will see it happen—glorious!
11 Light-seeds are planted in the souls of God’s people,
Joy-seeds are planted in good heart-soil.
12 So, God’s people, shout praise to God,
Give thanks to our Holy God!
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 20: Resurrection!
1-2 Early in the morning on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone was moved away from the entrance. She ran at once to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, breathlessly panting, “They took the Master from the tomb. We don’t know where they’ve put him.”
3-10 Peter and the other disciple left immediately for the tomb. They ran, neck and neck. The other disciple got to the tomb first, outrunning Peter. Stooping to look in, he saw the pieces of linen cloth lying there, but he didn’t go in. Simon Peter arrived after him, entered the tomb, observed the linen cloths lying there, and the kerchief used to cover his head not lying with the linen cloths but separate, neatly folded by itself. Then the other disciple, the one who had gotten there first, went into the tomb, took one look at the evidence, and believed. No one yet knew from the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead. The disciples then went back home.
Saint John, apostle and evangelist - Feast
Commentary of the Day:
Duns Scotus Erigena (?-c.870), Irish Benedictine
Homily on the Prologue of Saint John, §2
“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. Christ's 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.
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