Daily Gospel Reflection
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December 27, 2025
On the first day of the week,
Mary Magdalene ran and went to Simon Peter
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
“They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we do not know where they put him.”
So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.
They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter
and arrived at the tomb first;
he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.
When Simon Peter arrived after him,
he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,
and the cloth that had covered his head,
not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first,
and he saw and believed.
Today, on this Feast of Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist, we hear the story of the empty tomb—a place where both love and grief meet. I can’t help but think back to the day my husband and I found out we were having a miscarriage. My womb, the place where a little life was, was now a tomb.
But even in that place of emptiness, today’s gospel reminds us that the story is not finished. John arrives at the tomb first, hesitant, heart pounding, taking in the scene from the threshold. Then, Peter enters with the weight of fear, love, and confusion. John steps inside—and he sees and believes. He believes before the risen Jesus even appears. He believes because even in the stripped-down silence of the tomb, something unmistakably holy is taking place.
When I think back on our miscarriage, I remember that same stunned quiet. We were standing inside a kind of tomb—not of stone, but of grief. Yet, like John, there was a sense, however small, that God was present in that emptiness. Not to explain it, not to soften the pain, but simply to be there. To hold space. To stand at the threshold with us until we could take the next step.
The Feast of Saint John invites us to trust what love helps us see even before we fully understand it. John’s belief didn’t erase the sorrow of Good Friday, but it opened a door to hope. In our own losses, we are invited to do the same: to look gently into the places where something precious seems to have been taken from us, and to notice that God has already arrived ahead of us.
May we, like John, dare to believe—not because the tomb is empty, but because love is still present within it. Lord, hold close every grieving parent, and let your quiet hope rise within every broken place. Amen.
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!