St.john The Evangelist

ST JOHN, APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST •

-December 27

St John is known as The Evangelist, Beloved disciple of Christ, The Divine.

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He was a Galilean, the son of Zebedee and Salome and younger brother of St. James the Great, with whom he was brought up to the trade of fishing. He was called to be a disciple of our Lord, with his brother James as they were mending their nets. These two brothers continued to follow their profession of fishing, but upon seeing Jesus’ miracle draught of fishes, they left all things and followed Jesus. Christ gave them the surname of Boanerges, or sons of thunder.

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St. John is the youngest of all the apostles, about twenty-five years of age, when he was called by Christ.

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Our divine Redeemer had a particular affection for him above the rest of the apostles. St. John had a meek and peaceful disposition by which he was extremely like Christ himself. The virtue of innocence and simplicity in youth has peculiar charms to Christ and is always a seed of extraordinary graces and blessings.

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Christ chose him to be present with Peter and James at his Transfiguration, his agony in the garden; it being then the custom among the Jews often to lie along upon couches at meals, so that one might lean his head upon the bosom of him that lay before him; which honour Christ allowed St. John. Our Lord told only him that it was Judas who would betray him. To others, his answer was understood by the signal of the traitor's dipping a morsel of bread with him in the dish.

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St. John never forsook him.

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Our Lord recommended his mother to John’s care.

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He was there when Christ was pierced and saw the blood and water issue from the wound, at the taking down of our Lord's body from the cross and helped to present it to his most blessed mother, and afterwards to lay it in the sepulchre, with tears. Days later after the resurrection, St. John went fishing in the lake of Tiberias with other disciples and Jesus appeared on the shore in a disguised form. St. John knew him and told Peter and they all dined with him on the shore.

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After the Ascension, St. Peter and St. Paul did their first miracle of healing a poor cripple.

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St. John preached in other parts and took care of all the churches of Asia. He placed bishops in all that country and even in his old age, continued to visit the churches. Appollonius, a Greek father assures us that St. John raised a dead man to life at Ephesus. He only wore a tunic and a linen garment, never ate flesh and lived a life of austerity and mortification.

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In the second general persecution in the year 95, St. John was miraculously preserved from death when thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil. This miracle was regarded as sorcery so, the tyrant Domitian banished St. John into the isle of Patmos in the Archipelago. It was here that he got many heavenly visions which he has recorded in the canonical book of the Revelations or the Apocalypse. In the mean time, Domitian being slain in September in 96, all his edicts and public acts were declared void by a decree of the senate on account of his excessive cruelty and his successor, Nerva, recalled all those whom he had banished. So, St. John therefore returned to Ephesus in 97.

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St. John in imitation of the high priest of the Jews, wore a plate of gold upon his forehead, as an ensign of his Christian priesthood.

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This apostle also wrote three epistles.

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There is a true account that when St. John coming near Ephesus, observed a fair young man of pleasing personality and being much taken with him, he presented him to the bishop whom he had ordained for that see, saying, "In the presence of Christ, and before this congregation, I earnestly recommend this young man to your care." The bishop took the trust upon him. The apostle then went back to Ephesus. The young man was lodged in the bishop's house, instructed, disciplined, baptized and confirmed by him. When this was done, the bishop began to slacken the reins and be less watchful over him. The boy was soon allured by bad company and forgot the precepts of Christian religion and passing from one degree of wickedness to another, became the head of a band of robbers. When St. John came back, he said to the bishop, "Restore to me the trust which Jesus Christ and I committed to you in presence of your church." The bishop was surprised, imagining he meant some trust of money. But the saint explained. Then the bishop, with sighs and tears, said, "Alas! "He is dead to God, is turned robber, and lives on a

mountain with a company of wicked men like himself." St. John then called for a horse and guide and rode away to the mountain. When the young man saw St. John, he was filled with a mixture of shame and fear. St John pleaded, “I will answer for you to Jesus Christ. I am ready most willingly to lay down my life for you, as Jesus Christ laid down his for all men. I will pledge my soul for yours. Believe me, I am sent by Christ." At these words the young man stood still, with his eyes fixed upon the ground; then throwing away his weapons, he trembled and burst into tears. The apostle embraced him and brought him back to the church. •

St. John became old and weak and was no longer able to preach so he often was carried to the assembly of the faithful and every time said to his flock only these words, "My dear children, love one another."

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St. John died in peace at Ephesus in the 66th year from our Lord's crucifixion. He was 94 years old.

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The dust of his tomb was taken away out of devotion and was famous for miracles. A stately church was built over his tomb, but at present there is a Turkish mosque. The Greek Church celebrates 26th of September as his feast day and the Latin Church celebrates it as 27th of December.

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St. John teaches us sincere love for our neighbour is the test of our faith. 

"My little children, love not the world, nor the things which are in the world.

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He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is charity. Let us therefore love God, because God first loved us.

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For he that loveth not his brother whom he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth not?" says St. John.

- Wency D’Souza