Friday, December 27, 2019
John, Apostle and Evangelist
1st Reading: 1 Jn 1:1-4 Gospel: John 20:1,2-8
ON the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala ran to Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved. And she said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they have laid him.”
Peter then set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb. They ran together but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down and saw the linen cloths lying flat, but he did not enter.
Then Simon Peter came following him and entered the tomb; he, too, saw the linen cloths lying flat. The napkin, which had been around his head, was not lying flat like the other linen cloths but lay rolled up in its place. Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and believed.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
The Book of Revelations (4:7) makes reference to four creatures gathered around the throne. The four are an ox, a lion, a human being, and an eagle. Tradition has ascribed these four creatures to the four Gospel writers, with the eagle representing John the Evangelist whose feast we celebrate today. Because only an eagle can look straight at the sun without being dazzled, this representation gives justice to the gift of discernment John enjoyed and had put to good use. John had the most penetrating gaze into the mysteries of God. If we read his Gospel we can get lost in a maze of profound ideas. Central to these is his treatise on God as the Word.
John developed this capacity to pierce into the mysteries of God because of his close relationship with Jesus. Their relationship was “intimate to the degree of being sacred”. John himself admitted his closeness to Jesus when he described himself in the Gospel he wrote as “the disciple whom he (Jesus) loved” (John 19:26).
Is your faith as mature as John’s faith? When my faith is mature I love God not because “I fear the loss of heaven and the pains of hell” but because “I have offended my God who is so good deserving of all my love.” To love God out of fear for the loss of heaven is still tainted with the self centered desire for self preservation. It is still selfish! When faith has matured, “solo Dios basta” (God alone suffices).
Let us strive to be as close to Jesus as John was, with a love relationship that is both mature and sacred. We may not have the privilege of writing a Gospel for Jesus as John had, but our own life will be one living Gospel story if inspired by motives higher than eagles could reach in flight, even higher than heaven itself. Solo Dios basta! – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., J.D., D.M.