On the feast of Saint John

SAINT JOHN
Apostle, Evangelist, and Prophet

The apostle and evangelist, St. John, joins us today in the adoration of the Crib in this octave of Christmas, more popularly known as the “beloved disciple of Jesus. Compared with an eagle by his flights of elevated contemplation, Saint John is the supreme Doctor of the Divinity of Jesus of Nazareth. He is the author of five books of the New Testament, his Gospel, three Epistles, and the Apocalypse or Revelation of Saint John — all of which were composed after the ruin of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.s.” His sole exhortation was: “Little children, love one another.” He lived to an extreme old age, surviving all his fellow apostles and died at Ephesus about the year 100.

What is narrated repeatedly in the readings for this feast is “the mystery which we have seen.” When Simon Peter and the other disciple came to the tomb, they peered in and saw the wrappings lying on the ground. Then the other disciple went into the tomb; he saw and believed.

Resurrection in Christmas time! That’s what the gospel implies today, the Feast of St. John, an apostle of our Lord and the author of the fourth Gospel. It recounts the circumstances surrounding the resurrection event. This feast seems out of sync with the general mood of the Christmas season. It would be find perfect rhyme with Easter. However, this gospel is not totally out of tune with Christmas. The resurrection puts in perspective the purpose of the birth of the Child Jesus. He came to save and liberate us from the wages of sin and death. The sweet little infant lying in the manger is destined for a violent but glorious end.

Our feature of the resurrection story is striking in relation to the Christmas story. At Christmas our eyes are fixed on the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes. At the resurrection clothes are mentioned as well – the “burial clothes that were rolled up neatly in a separate place inside the tomb.” But while the swaddling clothes wrapped a baby, the burial clothes were empty. While those who were privileged to be called to Bethlehem, like the shepherds and the Magi, came to find a baby, Peter and John in our gospel story did not find a body. Nevertheless, John and Peter “saw and believed.”

How can one see nothing and yet believe? John, does not bother to defend his belief that Christ really resurrected. Burial clothes without a body in an empty tomb does not make a resurrection. But it must be noted that John is not making a news report where factual details are absolutely necessary. He, as a firsthand witness and being close to the Lord being the “beloved disciple”  is sharing us his faith not facts. If indeed facts are that necessary for us to believe, why is it that even Mary and Joseph, the protagonists in the Birth of Jesus are silent on the details of the Christmas story? John the evangelist has no other defense but his faith which represents the faith of the first Christian community. Through his gospel John is inviting us to believe and enter into the mysterious but exciting life of faith.

The words  “He saw and believed” refer to the reaction of the beloved disciple upon  seeing the empty tomb of Jesus. It was the “eye” that enabled him to see and believe beyond the death and the empty tomb of the Master. The beloved disciple understood that there is something in love that cannot die as the Letter of John states that he who loves has already conquered death (1John 3:14).

The lesson is that seeing is not enough. Our seeing must lead to believing: “he saw and believed”. our believing, in turn, must lead to proclamation: “This is what we proclaim to you…what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked upon and our hands have touched”. Our proclamation makes koinonia (fellowship) possible. Such is the challenge that the apostle St. John poses us today, that in our seeing, we may be led to believe; in our believing, we will be urged to proclaim; as we proclaim, may we then reap the abundant fruits of oneness and joy in our daily Christian life.

It is within the dynamics of loving relationship that one comes to understand and believe without further proofs. This “eye” of love embodied by Christians could be one of their greatest contributions to a world where “eyes closed by egoism” abound. It must be love that moved Mary Magdalene to go “to the tomb early and Peter and the beloved disciple to run to the tomb when Jesus’ body was reported missing. As St. Thomas Aquinas would say, “The beloved maybe absent or present but love stays on”. Thus, one who really loves cannot be indifferent. “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. Love sets one into action as St. John the Evangelist did, after having experienced Christ’s love, he proclaimed God’s offer of salvation to all .