Feast of St. John the Evangelist, December 27
Today we honor St. John the Evangelist, December 27, and does he pack a lot in his resume. It seems he is in quite good standing with God and Jesus, because he was the only Apostle not martyred. He was too busy writing the story to get caught up in the action. Perhaps that is what drew me to a life of writing.
Today is the third day in the octave of Christmas. The Church celebrates the Feast of St. John, apostle and evangelist. According to Catholic Culture, he was born in Bethsaida, he was called while mending his nets to follow Jesus. He became the beloved disciple of Jesus. He wrote the fourth Gospel, three Epistles and the Apocalypse. His passages on the preexistence of the Word, who by His Incarnation became the light of the world and the life of our souls, are among the finest of the New Testament.
He is the evangelist of the divinity of Christ and His fraternal love. With James, his brother, and Simon Peter, he was one of the witnesses of the Transfiguration. At the Last Supper, he leans on the Master's breast. At the foot of the cross, Jesus entrusts His Mother to his care. John's pure life kept him very close to Jesus and Mary in years to come. John was exiled to the island of Patmos under Emperor Domitian.
Following is a more detailed account of his life and death from The Catholic Encyclopedia New Advent.
New Testament Accounts
John was the son of Zebedee and Salome,
and the brother of James the Greater. In the Gospels the
two brothers are often called after their father "the sons of
Zebedee" and received from Christ the
honourable title of Boanerges, i.e. "sons of thunder" (Mark
3:17). Originally they were fishermen and fished with their father
in the Lake of Genesareth. According to the usual
and entirely probable explanation they became, however, for a time disciples
of John the Baptist, and were called by Christ
from the circle of John's followers, together with Peter and
Andrew, to become His disciples (John
1:35-42). The first disciples returned with their new Master from
the Jordan to Galilee and
apparently both John and the others remained for some time with Jesus (cf.
John ii, 12, 22; iv, 2, 8, 27 sqq.). Yet after the second return from Judea,
John and his companions went back again to their trade of fishing until he and
they were called by Christ to definitive discipleship (Matthew
4:18-22; Mark
1:16-20). In the lists of the Apostles John has the second place (Acts
1:13), the third (Mark
3:17), and the fourth (Matthew
10:3; Luke 6:14), yet always after James with the
exception of a few passages (Luke
8:51; 9:28 in the Greek text; Acts
1:13).
From James being thus placed first, the conclusion is drawn
that John was the younger of the two brothers. In any case John had a prominent
position in the Apostolic body. Peter, James, and he were the only witnesses of
the raising of Jairus's daughter (Mark
5:37), of the Transfiguration (Matthew
17:1), and of the Agony
in Gethsemani (Matthew
26:37). Only he and Peter were sent into the city to make the
preparation for the Last Supper (Luke
22:8). At the Supper itself his place was next to Christ on Whose
breast he leaned (John 13:23, 25). According to the general
interpretation John was also that "other disciple" who with Peter
followed Christ after the arrest into the palace of the high-priest (John
18:15). John alone remained near his beloved Master at the foot of
the Cross on Calvary with the Mother of Jesus and the pious women,
and took the desolate Mother into his care as the last legacy of Christ (John
19:25-27). After the Resurrection John
with Peter was the first of the disciples to hasten to the grave and he was the
first to believe that Christ had truly risen (John
20:2-10). When later Christ appeared at the Lake
of Genesareth John was also the first of the seven disciples
present who recognized his Master standing on the shore (John
21:7). The Fourth Evangelist has
shown us most clearly how close the relationship was in which he always stood
to his Lord and Master by the title with which he is accustomed to indicate
himself without giving his name: "the disciple whom Jesus loved".
After Christ's Ascension and the Descent of
the Holy Spirit, John took, together with Peter, a prominent part in the
founding and guidance of the Church.
We see him in the company of Peter at the healing of the lame man in the Temple
(Acts 3:1 sqq.). With Peter he is also thrown
into prison (Acts
4:3). Again, we find him with the prince of the Apostles visiting
the newly converted in Samaria (Acts
8:14).
We have no positive information concerning the duration of
this activity in Palestine. Apparently John in common with the other Apostles
remained some twelve years in this first field of labour, until the persecution of Herod
Agrippa I led to the scattering of the Apostles through the
various provinces of the Roman Empire (cf. Acts
12:1-17). Notwithstanding the opinion to the contrary of many
writers, it does not appear improbable that John then went for the first time
to Asia Minor and exercised his Apostolic
office in various provinces there. In any case a Christian community
was already in existence at Ephesus before Paul's first labours there (cf.
"the brethren", Acts
18:27, in addition to Priscilla and Aquila), and it is easy to
connect a sojourn of John in these provinces with the fact that the Holy Ghost
did not permit the Apostle Paul on his second missionary
journey to proclaim the Gospel in Asia,
Mysia, and Bithynia (Acts 16:6 sq.). There is just as little
against such an acceptation in the later account in Acts of St.
Paul's third missionary journey. But in any case such a sojourn
by John in Asia in this first period was neither
long nor uninterrupted. He returned with the other disciples to Jerusalem for
the Apostolic Council (about A.D. 51). St.
Paul in opposing his enemies in Galatia names John explicitly
along with Peter and James the Less as a "pillar of the Church", and
refers to the recognition which his Apostolic preaching of a Gospel free from
the law received from these three, the most
prominent men of the old Mother-Church at Jerusalem (Galatians
2:9). When Paul came again to Jerusalem after the second and after
the third journey (Acts 18:22; 21:17
sq.) he seems no longer to have met John there. Some wish to draw
the conclusion from this that John left Palestine between the years 52 and 55.
Of the other New-Testament writings, it is only from the
three Epistles of John and the Apocalypse that anything further is learned
concerning the person of the Apostle. We may be
permitted here to take as proven the unity of the author of these three
writings handed down under the name of John and his identity with the Evangelist.
Both the Epistles and the Apocalypse, however, presuppose that their author
John belonged to the multitude of personal eyewitnesses of the life and work of
Christ (cf. especially 1
John 1:1-5; 4:14),
that he had lived for a long time in Asia
Minor, was thoroughly acquainted with the conditions existing in the
various Christian communities there, and that he
had a position of authority recognized by all Christian communities
as leader of this part of the Church.
Moreover, the Apocalypse tells us that its author was on the island of Patmos
"for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus",
when he was honoured with the heavenly Revelation
contained in the Apocalypse (Revelation
1:9).
The Alleged presbyter John
The author of the Second and Third Epistles of John
designates himself in the superscription of each by the name (ho presbyteros),
"the ancient", "the old". Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis,
also uses the same name to designate the "Presbyter John" as in
addition to Aristion, his particular authority, directly after he has named the presbyters Andrew, Peter, Philip,
Thomas, James, John, and Matthew (in Eusebius, Church History III.39.4). Eusebius was
the first to draw, on account of these words of Papias, the distinction between
a Presbyter John and the Apostle John, and this distinction was also spread in
Western Europe by St.
Jerome on the authority of Eusebius.
The opinion of Eusebius has been frequently revived by
modern writers, chiefly to support the denial of the Apostolic origin of
the Fourth Gospel. The distinction, however,
has no historical basis. First, the testimony of Eusebius in
this matter is not worthy of belief.
He contradicts himself, as in his "Chronicle" he expressly calls the
Apostle John the teacher of Papias ("ad annum Abrah 2114"), as does
Jerome also in Ep. lxxv, "Ad Theodoram", iii, and in Illustrious Men 18. Eusebius was
also influenced by his erroneous doctrinal opinions
as he denied the Apostolic origin of the Apocalypse and ascribed this writing
to an author differing from St. John but of the same name. St.
Irenæus also positively designates the Apostle and Evangelist John
as the teacher of Papias, and neither he nor any other writer before Eusebius had
any idea of a second John in Asia (Against Heresies V.33.4). In what Papias himself says
the connection plainly shows that in this passage by the word presbyters only
Apostles can be understood. If John is mentioned twice the explanation lies in
the peculiar relationship in which Papias stood to this, his most eminent
teacher. By inquiring of others he had learned some things indirectly from
John, just as he had from the other Apostles referred to. In addition he had
received information concerning the teachings and acts of Jesus directly,
without the intervention of others, from the still living "Presbyter
John", as he also had from Aristion. Thus the teaching of Papias casts
absolutely no doubt upon what the New-Testament
writings presuppose and expressly mention concerning the residence of the Evangelist John
in Asia.
The later accounts of John
The Christian writers of the second and
third centuries testify to us as a tradition universally recognized and doubted by
no one that the Apostle and Evangelist John
lived in Asia Minor in the last decades of the
first century and from Ephesus had guided the Churches of that province. In his
"Dialogue with Tryphon" (Chapter 81) St.
Justin Martyr refers to "John, one of the Apostles of
Christ" as a witness who had lived "with
us", that is, at Ephesus. St. Irenæus speaks in very many places of the
Apostle John and his residence in Asia and
expressly declares that he wrote his Gospel at Ephesus (Against Heresies III.1.1), and that he had lived there
until the reign of Trajan (loc. cit., II, xxii, 5).
With Eusebius (Church History III.13.1) and others we are obliged to
place the Apostle's banishment to Patmos in the reign of the Emperor
Domitian (81-96). Previous to this, according to Tertullian's testimony (De praescript., xxxvi), John had been thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil
before the Porta Latina at Rome without
suffering injury. After Domitian's death
the Apostle returned to Ephesus during the reign of Trajan,
and at Ephesus he died about A.D. 100 at a great age. Tradition reports many
beautiful traits of the last years of his life: that he refused to remain under
the same roof with Cerinthus (Irenaeus "Ad.
haer.", III, iii, 4); his touching anxiety about a youth who had become a
robber (Clemens Alex., "Quis dives salvetur", xiii); his constantly
repeated words of exhortation at the end of his life, "Little
children, love one another" (Jerome,
"Comm. in ep. ad. Gal.", vi, 10). On the other hand the stories told
in the apocryphal Acts of John, which appeared
as early as the second century, are unhistorical invention.
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The Twelve Days of Christmas begin on December 25, the celebration of the birth of our Savior Jesus. Of course there are probably not many of you who even know there is a "Twelve Days of Christmas" celebration, let alone that it dates from the Fifth Century, which happens to be sixteen centuries ago.
Perhaps this seems more familiar for the modern person.
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Sometime in November, as things now stand, the "Christmas season" begins. The streets are hung with lights, the stores are decorated with red and green, and you can't turn on the radio without hearing songs about the spirit of the season and the glories of Santa Claus. The excitement builds to a climax on the morning of December 25, and then it stops, abruptly. Christmas is over, the New Year begins, and people go back to their normal lives.
