Saint John the Apostle: an evangelist and theologian who deserves to be better known

Summary:

Tradition presents Saint John as a very unique apostle

John was at the same time the youngest of the twelve apostles, men who were "chosen"(Jn 6:70), "called" (Mt 10:1), then "instituted" (Mk 3:14) and "established" (Mk 3:16) by Jesus "to be with him" (Mk 3:14) throughout his three years of public life; twelve companions and representatives of the Messiah who are named several times and present at all the important moments, in order to make them his "witnesses" (Lk 24:48) and the foundation of the Church. But John was also one of the three privileged apostles, along with Peter and James, his brother, with whom Jesus surrounded himself on certain occasions (Tabor, the resurrection of the synagogue ruler's daughter, the agony), the "beloved disciple" of Jesus, the only one to lay his head on Jesus' breast at the Last Supper, the only one of the Twelve to be present at the foot of the Cross, the first to "see and believe" when he saw the shroud rolled up in the empty tomb, one of the "pillars" of the Church, along with Peter and James the Less, according to Saint Paul (Gal 2:), the one who "remained" in this world the longest, for many years, after the martyrdom of Philip in Pontus in 81, until the reign of Trajan. Christ spoke to Peter of John's mysterious destiny in sibylline terms: "If I want him to remain until I come, what does it matter to you?" According to Saint Irenaeus and Saint Jerome, he was the last living apostle, and Christ did indeed come at the end of his life to give him the revelation of the Apocalypse. He was also the only one not to die a martyr's death (even though he "drank the cup" of Christ at the foot of the Cross and was a "martyr" by being pluged in boiling oil, according to the Fathers of the Church). He is also the only one who revealed in his epistles that "God is love" and that "God is light"; and finally he is the one who composed a Gospel (and in particular its Prologue) with a singularly high viewpoint, but complementary to the other three, in a beautiful and meaningful division of roles with them.

How can we explain this absolutely extraordinary destiny?

The nature of Saint John's secret is undoubtedly to be found in the fact that, after having been a disciple of Saint John the Baptist for a few years in his teen years, he then became a disciple of Jesus for three years.He was then entrusted as a son to the Virgin Mary, and thus took her “ home ” from the Cross to the Assumption, for probably twenty years! Tradition has it that John was the virgin apostle, chosen by Jesus before he was old enough to marry, and that he then remained constantly close to him. It is possible to try to reconstruct a chronology of John's life, based on what Scripture, Tradition and historical research give us today.

John is said to have been born around the year 10 A.D.

Until he came of age, at the age of twelve, he probably spent his childhood in Bethsaida, which was recently rediscovered on the very spot where Maria Valtorta's visions placed the town, i.e. on the north shore of Lake Tiberias, but three kilometres inland, due to the alluvial deposits that had accumulated over 2,000 years. It is one of the most beautiful places in the world. It's easy to imagine little John marvelling at the beauty of nature, and wondering at an early age who could be the author of so many marvels. According to the Gospel, his father Zebedee was in charge of a small fishing business, owning his own boats and employing a few workers. The fish was caught and sold in Capernaum, or dried and transported to be sold in the Decapolis by Andrew and Philip, who spoke Greek, and in Jerusalem (where the good fish from Galilee was particularly prized) by James and John. As Maria Valtorta's visions indicate, it is highly likely that from the age of twelve, John travelled regularly to Jerusalem, following his older brother James, on his father's business or for pilgrimage feasts. John, who was especially attracted to God, undoubtedly met the impressive teachers of the time: the notable Shammai, the great Hillel, and his nephew Gamaliel, who was already a renowned teacher. According to the Gospel, John was very familiar with the city, the festivals and even the entourage of the high priest (Jn 18:15-16).

As an adolescent, he became a disciple of John the Baptist

On his travels to the Holy City, the adolescent John passed by the place where John the Baptist was baptising in the Jordan. Presumably, he found in him someone even more fascinating than any of the temple teachers. He quickly became his disciple, along with his brother James and a few fishermen friends: Andrew and his brother Peter, Philip and Nathanael. This group remained disciples of John the Baptist until the latter pointed out to them Jesus as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world". This vision of Jesus as the slain Lamb changed Saint John's life forever, and he placed it at the centre of his Gospel and at the heart of the book of Revelation.

For the next three years, he was Christ's "beloved disciple".

From 27 to 30 AD, John spent three years following Christ and receiving the teachings of the divine Master day after day with a trusting heart. He became the "beloved" and "favourite disciple". This expression from the Eastern tradition refers to the disciple who penetrates more deeply into the master's thoughts and is able to convey them in the master's own words. Saint Thomas Aquinas, in his commentary on the Gospel of Saint John, makes the judicious observation that a master always loves his intelligent disciples more. John, however, had a particularly fine intelligence and a heart that enabled him to accept Christ's teachings in great depth. This is why it is so impressive to find in the Gospel of John these long discourses of revelation from Christ, which express in a unique way the profound and divine thought of Jesus. While the Synoptic Gospels give us a summary of the apostles' public proclamations in line with the liturgical calendar of the time, John's Gospel is addressed in a complementary way to the more advanced disciples, revealing to them more of the mystery of Christ.

At the Cross, Jesus gave John his mother, and John stayed with Mary until her Assumption

His imitation of Jesus and his love for him were so strong that he was the only apostle present at the foot of the Cross, at the hour of darkness when all the others were dispersed, and it was there that Jesus gave him his mother in particular, saying to Mary: "Woman, behold your son" (Jn 19:26) and to John: "Behold your mother" (Jn 19:27): "And from that hour the disciple took her into his home" (Jn 19:27). Saint Ambrose comments: "Mary, the mother of the Lord, was standing before the Cross of her son; no one told me this better than Saint John the Evangelist. John taught me how Jesus called his mother on the Cross. This is the testament of Christ on the Cross and John signed it, a worthy witness to such a great testator. A precious testament that bequeaths not money but eternal life, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God. And while the apostles fled, Mary stood at the foot of the Cross and, with her motherly eyes, contemplated the wounds of her son. She awaited not the death of her beloved, but the salvation of the world."

After Jesus' Ascension, John goes to Mary's school

The second stage of Saint John's life seems to have been a period of reflection. A deeply intelligent man, he tried to integrate and understand the message of Christ. He did this, above all, in Mary's company for twenty years. He integrated the whole life of Christ in the light of Mary to see and understand in depth all his miracles and all his teachings. From 30 to 36, after Pentecost, John, who was only twenty, was very close to Peter, whom he assisted in the first evangelisation of Jerusalem, as we see in the Acts of the Apostles, remaining silent, as his character and young age inclined him to do, until the persecution that followed Pontius Pilate's dismissal forced the apostles to leave. It was probably as early as 37 AD that Saint John left with the Virgin Mary to settle in Ephesus, as attested by a solid local tradition, recalled in 431 by the official letter that the Fathers of the Council of Ephesus sent to Nestorius. However, it was not John and Mary who founded the Church in Ephesus, but Paul, who did so seventeen years later, when he spent two years there. While all the apostles took advantage of their dispersion to found Churches and spread the good word, while Peter symbolised the hierarchical Church and Paul the missionary Church, John and Mary remained discreet, on the sidelines. How can this be explained? It seems that John and Mary inaugurated a new way of life at Ephesus, without a direct apostolate, in silence and prayer. In the words of the Apocalypse - "the woman pursued by the dragon has fled to the desert, where God has prepared a place for her" and it is in this desert of the hidden life that God nourished her for several years.

Ephesus can be seen as a new Nazareth where Mary brought up her "second son"

Jesus entrusted John to the Virgin Mary so that he would be like his son, and the obedient Virgin was going to make him experience in Ephesus what she had made Jesus experience in Nazareth, by making him grow in the same way as he had during the thirty years of hidden life in Nazareth. Mary's house in Ephesus was, in a way, the first monastery where John took the time to delve deeply into the mystery of Christ, with Mary, in a life of silence, prayer and contemplation.

Mary and John, in Ephesus, lay the foundations of the contemplative and religious life

This time of desert was to have an immense impact on the Marian Church, the Church of religious men and women, centred on a life of prayer, contemplation and deepening of the mystery of Christ, far from the world, in the silence of a hidden life, like an echo of what Mary and John experienced. The first monks called John their "father", as a disciple of Evagrius Ponticus mentions. Epiphanius of Salamis confirms that they met "to imitate the life of Mary and John at Ephesus" (monastic rule of the agape). Later, Saint Augustine and many others saw Saint John as the model of the contemplative life: "Saint John is the origin of our highest spirituality. Like him, the "silent" know this mysterious exchange of hearts, invoke the presence of John and their hearts are inflamed"(Athenagoras, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, cited by Olivier Clément in Dialogues avec le patriarche Athénagoras, Turin, Fayard, 1972, p. 159).

Meryem Ana is a place of deeper prayer, contemplation and reflection

The rediscovery ofMeryem Ana - the "house of the Virgin" in Ephesus - following the visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich, took place during the pontificate of Leo XIII (1878-1903). When the latter heard about it, he openly expressed his satisfaction, and Pius X, Benedict XV and Pius XI took a great interest in the discovery. Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI have since made pilgrimages to the site, pointing out that St John's contemplative life with the Virgin Mary in Ephesus is in a way a model for everyone: "The Holy Spirit guides the Church's efforts, urging it to adopt the same behaviour as Mary. In the account of the birth of Jesus, Saint Luke notes that his mother "kept all these things, pondering them in her heart", thus endeavouring to "put together" (in Greek: symballousa), with a deeper insight, all the events of which she had been the privileged witness. In a similar way, the people of God are also impelled by the same spirit to understand in depth all that is said about Mary, in order to progress in the understanding of their mission, which is intimately linked to the mysteries of Christ. The mystery of Mary urges every Christian, in communion with the Church, to meditate in his or her heart on what the Gospel says about the mother of Christ " (John Paul II, catechesis of November 8, 1995).

John "took Mary into his home" (Jn 19:27) until her Assumption to Heaven

After the end of the persecution, the apostles tried to meet again in Jerusalem around 41, but James the Greater, John's brother, was arrested unexpectedly and then beheaded by Herod Agrippa. John's brother was the first apostle to give his witness by shedding his blood. This event left its mark on John, to whom Jesus had also promised: "You shall drink of my cup". The apostles eventually met again in 48, and then around 49 with Saint Paul, for what is known as the "Council of Jerusalem", during which the doctrine on circumcision was defined. It was undoubtedly at this time that the Virgin Mary, in the presence of John, gave Luke the Infancy Gospels, the parables of mercy and the story of the Passion, before joining her son Jesus in Heaven by her Assumption some time later.

Mary is at the origin of the revelation of the mysteries of the Incarnation

As Saint John Paul II said: "The first Christian communities themselves recorded Mary's memories of the mysterious circumstances of the conception and birth of the Saviour. In particular, the story of the Annunciation responds to the disciples' desire to know in greater depth the events relating to the beginning of the earthly life of the risen Christ. In the final analysis, Mary is at the origin of the revelation of the mystery of the virginal conception by the operation of the Holy Spirit. This truth, which demonstrates the divine origin of Jesus and was immediately grasped by the first Christians in its important dimension, is inscribed among the key affirmations of their faith." (John Paul II, catechesis of 13 September 1995).

John no doubt passed on his testimony at length, in the course of decades of teaching

During the decades that followed Mary's departure, according to Tradition, Saint John was the great teacher of the bishops and disciples of the first generation (such as Ignatius and Polycarp, who in turn taught Pothinus, Bishop of Lyon, who died in the persecution of 177, and Irenaeus, whom he received and trained for a long time in seminars based on oral tradition, in Jerusalem and then again in Ephesus, until the advent of Domitian, who was the first emperor of Rome to want to be worshipped as a god while still living). At Ephesus, where John was a regular resident, Domitian had an imposing temple built, measuring 64 by 85 metres, with a peripteros measuring 24 by 34 metres, and a gigantic statue representing him. The team of Austrian archaeologists who worked on the Ephesus site point out that he also financed a fountain, a third water supply system, the paving of the Embolos and a new gymnasium, under the direction of his "construction delegate" Claudius Clemens (cited by Helmut Halfman in Éphèse et Pergame. Urbanisme et commanditaires en Asie Mineure, Ausonius, 2004).

According to one tradition, Saint John was martyred in boiling oil in Rome, but miraculously survived

John, the last surviving apostle at the time, must not have remained silent in the face of Domitian's blasphemy, because in 94 he was undoubtedly brought to Rome before the emperor, who questioned him and subjected him to the ordeal of boiling oil at the Latin Gate, in front of the temple of Diana, the Artemis of Ephesus. Several ancient writers (Polycarp, Tertullian, Jerome, Ambrose, Bede the Venerable) and the apocryphal writings of Obadiah, John and Prochorus relate the miracle that has been celebrated in Rome every year since then, on 6 May: "He came out of the cauldron fresher and stronger than when he went in" says Saint Jerome. Tertullian insists on the three great martyrs of the Church of Rome: "If you go to Italy, you will find Rome, where all authority is at our disposal. How happy is this Church (of Rome) where some of the apostles spread the whole doctrine and shed their blood; where Peter underwent a martyrdom similar to that of the Lord Jesus; where Paul received the same crown as John (the Baptist); and where the apostle John, immersed in boiling oil, was not harmed and was condemned to exile on the island..." (Tertullian, The Prescription Against Heretics, chap. 36).

It was probably Domitian who exiled John to Patmos, where he received the revelation of the Apocalypse

After the miracle of the boiling oil, the emperor, possibly frightened or impressed, exiled John to the island of Patmos, where he received the vision of the Apocalypse in 96 AD, after having evangelised the island with his disciple Prochorus. Although some modern exegetes have expressed doubts about the attribution of the Apocalypse to John, Tradition (Justin, Irenaeus, Jerome, Clement, etc.) is unanimous, and the discussions that may have existed on this subject in the fourth century were brought to an end by the Council of Toledo, which concluded in 633: "The authority of many councils and the synodal decrees of the holy Roman bishops establish that the book of Revelation is by John the evangelist, and rule that it must be ranked among the divine books. But there are many who do not receive its authority and refuse to proclaim it in the Church of God. If anyone henceforth does not receive it and acknowledge it publicly in the Church at the time of the Masses between Easter and Pentecost, he will be sentenced to excommunication " (chap. 17, Dnz 486). From then until the 19th century, Tradition has been absolutely unanimous in all the Apostolic Churches, as it was in the Orthodox monasteries on the island of Patmos.

Saint John was active in Asia Minor, where he finally published his Gospel, until his last days

John then returned to Ephesus, and according to the Apocrypha (Acts of John, Acts of Prochorus), this was his most active apostolic period. John finally published in Greek, with his scribe Prochorus, the refined substance of his oral teaching, and this was the spiritual Gospel, centred entirely around the mystery of the incarnation of the Word, fully manifesting the divinity of Christ. "The acuity of his spiritual intelligence makes the apostle Saint John compare himself to an eagle [...]. The apostle speaks of the divinity of the Lord as no one has ever spoken of it before. He was rendering what he himself had seen, for his own Gospel relates, not without reason, that at the Last Supper he rested on the Lord's breast" (Saint Augustine, Treatiseon the Gospel of Saint John, 36,1).

John's death and the miracle of his tomb

"If I want him to stay until I come, what is it to you?" Christ prophesied in response to Peter's question about John, "What about him, Lord?"  In fact, John lived to a very old age, being for a long time the last living apostle. The Gospel actually corrects the wrong assumption and "the rumour that had spread among the disciples that he would not die". John finally died almost a hundred years old in Ephesus, during the reign of Trajan, according to Saint Irenaeus, after the year 104. After the "going to sleep" and burial of the holy apostle John the Theologian in Ephesus, which is celebrated every year on 26 September, his tomb was found empty and became a source of miracles. On 8 May, the Eastern Church celebrates the synaxis in honour of the ashes - or holy manna - that the tomb of the illustrious saint produced. Indeed, every 8 May, the tomb was suddenly covered with a kind of ash, which the local Christians called "manna", and which had the virtue of curing the illnesses of the soul and body of those who anointed themselves with it with faith. This miracle gave the Church the opportunity to solemnly celebrate for a second time every year the beloved disciple of the Lord, the beloved son of the mother of God. His tomb is still venerated today in the immense Basilica of St John, dedicated to him. God's Revelation is sealed by the Johannine writings, and Revelation is therefore definitively closed with the death of Saint John.

Saint John has appeared many times in the history of the Church, but almost always with the Virgin Mary

As early as the 3rd century, Saint John appeared to Gregory the Thaumaturgist, then to Saint Andrew the Mad in the church of Blachernes, in Constantinople, to Saint Catherine of Siena, to Saint John of God, to Pope Celestine V (1215 -1296), to Saint Gertrude in the 13th century, as if in preparation for Jesus' revelations to Margaret Mary on 27 December 1673, the feast of Saint John, to Ferdinand of Portugal (1402 - 1443), to a young Cistercian admitted by Saint Bernard, to Flodoard of Reims (c.893- 966), Gherardesca of Pisa († 1269), Hadewijch of Antwerp (c. 1240), Marie-Amice Picard on 19 May 1634, Heroldsbach (1949-1952), Knock in Ireland on 21 August 1879), and Seraphim of Sarov. John almost always appeared in the company of the Virgin Mary, his mother, as if to emphasise his unique bond with the Mother of God.

The mystery of the "beloved disciple" is an invitation to put ourselves in his place

The Apostle John features prominently in the Synoptic Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, but he does not name himself explicitly in his Gospel, preferring the expression "the disciple whom Jesus loved". Much has been written about this question, and modern writers often answer it in a way that is far from consistent with Tradition. Why did John want to hide his name behind the figure of the "beloved disciple"? Most certainly because he felt incredibly privileged to have known Christ, his mother and his precursor, and to have lived with them at such decisive moments in the history of the world. But he also felt that all these gifts were not for him alone: Jesus, his mother and his mysteries are offered to all those who wish to become beloved disciples. Like John, we are invited to rest on the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Jn 13:25), to take Mary as our Mother (Jn 19:25-27), to live by faith based on the signs God gives us (Jn 20:8), to recognise Christ in the everyday events of our lives (Jn 21:7), to remain in God by remembering his wonders (Jn 21:21-24) and to follow the Lamb "wherever he goes" (Jn 21:21), to his Cross and Resurrection.

We are all called to become beloved disciples

"In the person of John, as the Church has always believed," Leo XIII explains, "Christ designated the human race, especially those who would believe in him." Pope John Paul II, too, has often insisted on this very important moment when Jesus entrusts to his mother this disciple whom he loved and who loved him so much, and in whom every disciple of Christ is invited to recognise himself: "The disciple's name was John. It was John, son of Zebedee, apostle and evangelist, who heard Christ's words from the Cross: 'Behold your mother'. Earlier, Christ had said to his mother: "Woman, behold your son". It was an admirable testament. When Christ left this world, he gave his mother a man who would be like a son to her: John. He entrusted him to her. And as a result of this gift, this entrustment into his hands, Mary became the mother of John. The mother of God became the mother of man. From that hour, John "took her into his home" and became the earthly guardian of his master's mother; it is indeed the right and duty of children to care for their mother. But above all, by the will of Christ, John became the son of the mother of God. And through John, every man became her son." (John Paul II, homily at the Mass at Fatima on 13 May 1982).

Beyond reasons to believe:

The Apostle John leads us to a life of prayer and contemplation: "Saint John is at the origin of our highest spirituality. Like him, the "silent" know this mysterious exchange of hearts, they invoke the presence of John and their hearts are inflamed " (Athenagoras, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople - in Olivier Clément, Dialogues avec le patriarche Athénagoras, Turin, Fayard, 1972, p. 159).

Going further:

The video from the Marie de Nazareth YouTube channel: Saint John the Evangelist, Apostle and Theologian: a little-known giant.

More information:

• Aleteia's "Question de fond": " Saint John, an apostle for today ".
• The video from the Mary of Nazareth YouTube channel: John, the disciple whom Jesus loved (DJA), at the UIP colloquium on 18 May 2019.
• The video from the Mary of Nazareth YouTube channel: John absent from John, the impossible hypothesis.

• The Apostle John: A Blessed Life by James Byers, Hilliard Press (April 1, 2008)

• John the Beloved: How the Son of Thunder Became the Apostle of Love by Dr. Darryl DelHousaye, ‎ LLJ Ministries LLC (July 28, 2016)