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| St. John dictating the Apocalypse to his secretary, Prochorus. The revealed light of God shines in gold, and through the Scriptures, enters into the darkness of this world. |
The 3rd day of Christmas is the celebration of
St. John the Apostle and Evangelist. By tradition he is ascribed authorship to
the Gospel that bears his name, as well as the Apocalypse and three short
letters in the New Testament.
He was likely the youngest member of Jesus’ band
of followers, and especially close to Jesus, being known as “the disciple whom
Jesus loved.” John was one of the "inner band" of disciples, along with James and Peter, and was present for essentially all of Our Lord's public ministry. He is consistently reported to have lived into advanced age
(something alluded to at the close of the Gospel according to John), dying a
natural death while serving as the first bishop of Ephesus.
Because they had been commended into each other’s care by
Christ on the Cross, by tradition the Blessed Virgin Mary came to live with John for the
rest of her life. That same tradition asserts that the
other apostles returned to John’s home to be with Mary as she “fell asleep in
the Lord.” It was to be the final gathering of the Twelve and Our Lady-- all of whom were
together on Pentecost.
Before this, however, St. John suffered persecution for his faith in the Risen Lord, including a
sojourn on the labor-prison island of Patmos where he experienced the visions
recorded in the book of Revelation. While on Patmos, he would have known
privation and beating. Thus, while not being martyred for his faith, he knew
the cost of what it meant to take up his own cross and follow Christ.
These are the biographical details. Important as they are,
they do not contain the main power of St. John’s witness. That power is lodged
in the writings attributed to him, for John was a unique observer of Christ’s
ministry. From the Prologue of the Gospel through the end of the Revelation,
from the “signs” Christ worked in his ministry through his “enthronement” on
the Cross and on to John’s teaching about the nature of Christian Love in the
First Letter of John, there is a special voice speaking: the voice of personal
experience, personal liberation in mystical encounter.
We celebrate St. John today bathed in the light of the
Incarnation. John spoke with great fluidity about this Mystery. He saw how it
permeates everything in the Christian’s life. The Word becoming flesh and
dwelling among us is not, for John, an exterior event. It is an interior
reality realized by God’s initiative and by human contemplation. The beauty and
power found in John’s writings is the direct result of prayer—of time immersed
in the timeless.
And this is the ‘missing piece’ in most modern theology and
spiritual writing. Only those who have been soaked in prayer may speak with
authority about the things of God. All else is merely opinion. This reminds me
of the art and architecture historian and critic John Ruskin’s remark about
what made it possible for Medieval people to build the great cathedrals—and
what makes that same effort impossible for us today: theirs was a world of
belief; ours is one of opinions. Opinions could never build a great cathedral.
Much of St. John’s work is suffused with light encountering
darkness and overcoming it. That is, for those in northern climes, a directly
applicable theme drawn from nature this time of year. But the Apostle was
speaking from an interior knowledge much more than an earthly one.
For him, a unending light had pierced the darkness of human
thought, the darkness of the human heart separated from God. It is this
experience, mediated in prayer and compassion, that marks this day with a special
significance. For us, today is a celebration of that Light and its potential in
each of us, even as it moves inexorably towards its final, triumphant culmination,
the assurance of which we find whenever we read the Beloved Disciple’s words.
Collect for the Feast
of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist
Shed upon your Church, O Lord, the brightness of your light,
that we, being illumined by the teaching of your apostle and evangelist John,
may so walk in the light of your truth, that at length we may attain to the
fullness of eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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