ORLANDO, FL (Catholic Online) - I write from Florida where I am visiting my seriously ill mother. She is 82 years old and in the middle of one more health crisis. My oldest daughter gave our family a wonderful Christmas gift. She rented a place where all of us could stay. We drove or flew from all over the country to see "Nana" during Christmas.

My dear mother, bedridden and in the winter of her life, was surrounded by me, her son, my wife, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren this morning.  Few words were said; they were not necessary. Love was manifest. It was visible in the tears of her son, grandsons, great grandsons, granddaughters, great granddaughters, sons in law, daughters in law and the prayers and kisses of hope which she received.

On this Feast, the scriptures offered at Mass are dedicated to St. John, Apostle and Evangelist. They speak to us about our relationship with Jesus. St. John is rightly called the beloved disciple. Our first reading is a portion of his beautiful first letter to the early Church. (1 Jn. 1:1-4) These letters flow from the deep theological content so evident in his Gospel account.

The Gospel passage (Jn. 20:1a and 2-A) introduces us to the source of St. John's deep theology. He was a witness to the Resurrection. Not only did he walk with the Lord, rest his head on the chest of Christ during the last meal, stand at the second tree, the Cross on Golgotha's Hill next to the Mother of the Lord - but he rushed to the tomb and witnessed the implications of the triumph over death.

He is the disciple of a love which is stronger than death, the love of the Risen and glorified Jesus Christ.

John's Gospel was the last to be written. It reflects the deepening theological reflection of the early Church on the meaning of the conception, nativity, life, death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus, the Christ. That is why my very favorite Gospel of the numerous Christmas liturgies is the Gospel of the Mass of Christmas day taken from St. John. (John 1: 1-18)

My favorite definition of a theologian is taken from the writings of a first century monk Evagrius of Pontus who said that a theologian is someone who "rests his head on the chest of Christ." The image calls to mind the beloved disciple, John, depicted as doing just that in early Christian art. Evagrius also said "one who prays is a theologian".  

St. John was such a great theologian because he was in an intimate communion with Jesus. As someone who has pursued years of graduate theology, I am certainly not opposed to academic study. However, the heart of good theology is an ongoing encounter with the Risen Jesus. Without such an encounter I do not know how anyone can do theology at all. 

For John, that communion continued after the Resurrection because Jesus is still truly present, in His glorified life, to all those who live in the encounter which lies at the heart of being a Christian. The Risen Jesus comes to be with us in every Eucharist, in His Word, and in the intimate life of living prayer. John knew Jesus personally and lived in an intimate communion with the Lord; the kind that only comes through prayer.

We can do so as well. The choice is ours.  St John, the beloved disciple, shows us the way. He prayed. Do we?

Prayer is about living in an ongoing dialogue and intimate communion with God. God fashioned men and women for such a relationship. He created us for communion, a relational conversation of life with Him. However, at the heart of understanding what it means to be created in His Image is coming to understand the immense gift of human freedom - and what happened to our capacity to choose through sin. 

Our relationship with God was broken, separated and wounded through the first sin, the "original sin". That sin, like all sin since, is at root a misuse of human freedom infected by pride and self sufficiency. Our ability to exercise our freedom rightly by directing our capacity for free choice always toward the good, was impeded through the fall. Freedom was fractured. Only the splint of the Cross of Calvary can heal

The Good News is that through Jesus Christ, the way has been opened for an even fuller communion with God than our first parents had before the fall. Through the Incarnation, Saving life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ we are being re-created, re-fashioned and redeemed.

He comes to live in those who make a place for Him within the center of their lives. This "making a place" is the essence of Christian prayer. John made such a place for Jesus. He calls us to do the same.

The Lord wants us to freely choose to respond to His continual invitations to love. John shows us the way to do just that. We need a Savior.  We will only find our fulfillment as human persons by entering into the relationship that he had with Jesus. ...