Octave of Christmas - Feast of St. John the Evangelist

St. John sometimes described himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. To this "son of thunder" as he and his brother James were named, relationship was everything.

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WASHINGTON (Catholic Online) - James and John, the sons of Zebedee, left their father and the fishing trade first to follow John the Baptist. Later, they were called to follow Jesus, who named them "the sons of Thunder." The younger brother, St. John would become the one who writings revealed Christ's divinity as none other.

John was included in the inner circle of Christ's followers. He was present for the miracles, healings, the transfiguration and the teaching ministry of Jesus from the beginning. Even at the cross he remained while others fled, standing next to the Mother of God, whose care was entrusted to him by the Jesus who hung above the two. He, along with Peter, discovered the resurrection of Christ.

Following the Ascension of the Lord, St. John continued his ministry in Jerusalem and then traveled into Asia Minor as the persecution intensified under Herod Agrippa I. He returned later for the Council at Jerusalem, where St. Paul presented his case for the Gentiles.

Later he lived in Ephesus where he wrote his gospel account. St. John was later banished to the Island of Patmos under the Emperor Domitian where he recorded his "Revelation." He returned to Ephesus after the Emperor died.

St. John left behind three attributed pastoral letters, The Revelation and a glorious Gospel. Tradition has it that the Apostle continued to encourage the faithful by constantly repeating "Little children, love one another" until he died in A.D. 100 at a very old age.

St. Augustine shares some thoughts about St. John's first letter, which reveals Life and Love incarnate.

A treatise by St Augustine on the epistle of John: The flesh revealed Life itself

"We announce what existed from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our own eyes, what we have touched with our own hands. Who could touch the Word with his hands unless the Word was made flesh and lived among us?"

Now this Word, whose flesh was so real that he could be touched by human hands, began to be flesh in the Virgin Mary's womb; but he did not begin to exist at that moment. We know this from what John says: "What existed from the beginning." Notice how John's letter bears witness to his Gospel, which you just heard a moment ago: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God."

Someone might interpret the phrase the Word of life to mean a word about Christ, rather than Christ's body itself which was touched by human hands. But consider what comes next: "and life itself was revealed." Christ therefore is himself the Word of life.

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And how was this life revealed? It existed from the beginning, but was not revealed to men, only to angels, who looked upon it and feasted upon it as their own spiritual bread. But what does Scripture say? "Mankind ate the bread of angels."

Life itself was therefore revealed in the flesh. In this way what was visible to the heart alone could become visible also to the eye, and so heal men's hearts. For the Word is visible to the heart alone, while flesh is visible to bodily eyes as well. We already possessed the means to see the flesh, but we had no means of seeing the Word. The Word was made flesh so that we could see it, to heal the part of us by which we could see the Word.

John continues: "And we are witnesses and we proclaim to you that eternal life which was with the Father and has been revealed among us - one might say more simply "revealed to us."

"We proclaim to you what we have heard and seen." Make sure that you grasp the meaning of these words. The disciples saw our Lord in the flesh, face to face; they heard the words he spoke, and in turn they proclaimed the message to us. So we also have heard, although we have not seen.

Are we then less favored than those who both saw and heard? If that were so, why should John add: "so that you too may have fellowship with us?" They saw, and we have not seen; yet we have fellowship with them, because we and they share the same faith.

"And our fellowship is with God the Father and Jesus Christ his Son. And we write this to you to make your joy complete" - complete in that fellowship, in that love and in that unity."

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