Today is the Feast of St. John the Divine, Apostle
and Evangelist. The body of works in the New Testament traditionally ascribed
to John includes a Gospel, the book of Revelation, and three Epistles or
letters. Taken together, this corpus of writing is extremely important for a
full understanding of the Christian faith and practice.
The Johannine writings often focus on the meaning
of events in ways the other New Testament authors do not. I have sometimes
rather lightly called them the “right brain” of the Christian faith—using a
faddish way of understanding the mind. But the point of saying this is not faddish.
These writings invite us into a world of sign, symbol, and experience often
taking us beyond the limits of language and into the Reality above and beyond
ordinary “reality.”
The Feast of St. John celebrates his falling asleep
in the Lord. In Western Christianity St. John is the only Apostle accorded a
non-violent death (though he had to suffer the harsh realities of imprisonment
on the prison island of Patmos, making him a Confessor of the Faith in the
Church’s reckoning). It also celebrates his unique voice as a witness to
Christ, a voice many have found especially helpful in moving deeper into the
mystery of salvation.
One of the hallmarks of the Johannine tradition is
its emphasis on the personal experience of the believer, often using the
language of touch, hearing, seeing, &c. The Semitic origin of this way of
believing is very evident here: faith is not just a matter of intellectual
assent, but one of physical participation. On St. John’s day we celebrate this
very personal—in the full sense of that word—way of being “branches” in living
communion with the True Vine.
It is this intimacy of participation that makes the
Gospel according to John and all the Johannine writings so deeply important to
me. Growing up in an overly-intellectual form of Christianity, where the
mystical and emotional was largely absent, I profoundly value the wholeness of
Anglican catholic Christianity, with its balanced emphasis on the mind, body,
and spirit.
In the Episcopal Church, this is perhaps most fully
expressed in the Rite I Eucharist, with its emphasis on mutuality and
participation (“…that he may dwell in us, and we in him…”). It is just this
immediacy of access and personal experience available freely to all in Christ
that never tires me, drawing more and more into the ravishing mystery of the
Word made flesh.
St. Augustine, whose writings on the Johnannine
corpus are amongst that great and complex theologian’s most beautiful works,
delighted in pondering the meaning of the Word coming to dwell with us in the
flesh. This aspect of the Christian message never ceased to amaze St.
Augustine, and fuels much of his teaching about human nature being capable only
of love, whether directed properly to communion with God or improperly to
communion with something else (which is sin).
During the Twelve Days of Christmas, and especially
on St. John’s Day, it is good to reflect on this teaching, asking one’s self
just what and where our search for love and communion is taking us. (This is a central
part of a parish’s ministry to its members, and a key part of a parish priest’s
pastoral care ministry.)
Below are some of his thoughts about this in the context
of a treatise on the First Epistle of John—one of the most significant guides
to Christian community life every written, and a powerful, poetic expression of
what Christian love in action looks like. (The biblical text St. Augustine is
working with is in italics; his commentary is in regular print.)
+ + +
We
announce what existed from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen
with our own eyes, what we have touched with our own hands. Who could touch the
Word with his hands unless the Word was made flesh and lived among us?
Now
this Word, whose flesh was so real that he could be touched by human hands,
began to be flesh in the Virgin Mary’s womb; but he did not begin to exist at
that moment. We know this from what John says: What existed from the
beginning. Notice how John’s letter bears witness to his Gospel, which you
just heard a moment ago: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God.
Someone
might interpret the phrase the Word of life to mean a word about Christ, rather
than Christ’s body itself which was touched by human hands. But consider what
comes next: and life itself was revealed. Christ therefore is himself
the Word of life.
And
how was this life revealed? It existed from the beginning, but was not revealed
to men, only to angels, who looked upon it and feasted upon it as their own
spiritual bread. But what does Scripture say? Mankind ate the bread of
angels.
Life
itself was therefore revealed in the flesh. In this way what was visible to the
heart alone could become visible also to the eye, and so heal men’s hearts. For
the Word is visible to the heart alone, while flesh is visible to bodily eyes
as well. We already possessed the means to see the flesh, but we had no means
of seeing the Word. The Word was made flesh so that we could see it, to heal
the part of us by which we could see the Word.
John
continues: And we are witnesses and we proclaim to you that eternal life
which was with the Father and has been revealed among us – one might
say more simply “revealed to us.”
We
proclaim to you what we have heard and seen. Make sure that you grasp the
meaning of these words. The disciples saw our Lord in the flesh, face to face;
they heard the words he spoke, and in turn they proclaimed the message to us.
So we also have heard, although we have not seen.
Are
we then less favored than those who both saw and heard? If that were so, why
should John add: so that you too may have fellowship with us? They saw,
and we have not seen; yet we have fellowship with them, because we and they
share the same faith.
And
our fellowship is with God the Father and Jesus Christ his Son. And we write
this to you to make your joy complete – complete in that fellowship,
in that love and in that unity.
From a Treatise on the First Epistle of
St. John by St. Augustine of Hippo, Bishop
(AD 354-430, Commemorated August 28)
+ + +
The Collect for the
Feast of St. John the Divine: 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.
A Collect for
Christmastide
Almighty
God, you have given your only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and to
be born of a pure virgin: Grant that we, who have been born again and made your
children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit;
through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with you and the same Spirit be honor
and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment