Daily Gospel Reflection
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December 27, 2019
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”
Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.
Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed.
I was like John.
When I was young, I was the idealistic, theologically inclined Catholic who had all the answers. Like John in this gospel, I was going to outrun everyone to the tomb and show them how faith is done.
But why does John wait outside the tomb, reluctant to enter? As the gospel tells us, he doesn’t know the complete truth yet, nor does he yet fully believe. He stands literally and figuratively on the threshold of the most dramatic and life-changing event in history, but he momentarily hesitates to enter and face the answers.
Perhaps John is seized by a dawning realization—even a growing anxiety—about what this all might really mean for him: what will it mean if Jesus has truly risen? And what will it really cost to enter this tomb, to see the winding sheet and believe, to know that Jesus is Lord, and that I must take up my cross and follow him? What will that mean for my life?
Now, in my seventeenth year of marriage and as a father of five children, one of whom is severely disabled, I find myself grappling frequently with such questions, realizing, like John on the threshold, that following Christ isn’t just academic. It is messy, sometimes even painful, and it must touch the whole of this sometimes tragic life. I like to think I’m still idealistic. I still love theology. But John teaches me that faith is much more than these, that to rise with Christ demands my fully entering his tomb and touching the bloodstained winding sheet every day—and that choosing to enter that dark mystery cannot help but change everything.
Prayer
Upon seeing the empty tomb, John, the Beloved Disciple, believed. Almighty Father, we ask that you may continue to bless us, who have not seen yet still believe. When faith is hard to comprehend, may this be our simple prayer, “Lord, help my unbelief.” Amen.
Saint of the Day
John is known in Scripture as being Jesus’ beloved disciple. Jesus called John along with his brother, James, as they were mending their nets near the Sea of Galilee. He called the two brothers “sons of thunder.”
John was the youngest of all the disciples, and it is believed he outlived the others. He was the only one who is known to not have suffered martyrdom—he died when he was in his 90s.
John, represented in today's featured image by a stained glass window from the chapel in St. Edward's Hall, was present at most of the important moments of Jesus’ life—the transfiguration and in the Garden of Gethsemane before Jesus was arrested, for example. In the story of the Last Supper, John leans on the breast of Jesus to ask who would betray him. Of all the disciples, he remained with Mary at the foot of the cross, and before he died, Jesus handed over care for his mother to John.
John eventually settled in Ephesus among the Christian community there. His biography indicates that he was arrested, tried in Rome, and banished to the island of Patmos, where he received visions and dreams that he recorded in the Book of Revelation.
After the emperor’s death, John returned to Ephesus, where the Church's tradition holds that he wrote his Gospel. John’s Gospel is entirely different from those of Mark, Luke, and Matthew—it presents Jesus with great authority, radiating divinity throughout. For his soaring theology, John is represented by the symbol of an eagle (depicted to the left in stained glass from the chapel in Morrissey Hall). He also wrote three letters that are part of our New Testament.
It is said that when John was too old to preach to the Christians at Ephesus, he was brought before the congregation and would simply say, “My little children, love one another.” When asked why he always repeated these words, he would reply, “Because it is the word of the Lord, and if you keep it, you do enough.”
Several pieces of St. John's relics are kept in the reliquary chapel of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on campus, including a piece of his tomb. The chapel in Farley Hall, a women's residential hall on campus, is named after him. Croatian artist Ivan Mestrovic sculpted a story from John's Gospel of Jesus talking to a Samaritan Woman at the ancient site of Jacob's Well and portrays John and Luke on either side of the main sculpture, which stands in front of O'Shaughnessy Hall on South Quad (shown above).
St. John the Evangelist, whose Gospel urges us to love one another because God is love—pray for us!