Wednesday, December 27, 2017

St.John, the Beloved Disciple

Today we celebrate the feast of St. John, the Evangelist, the beloved disciple who rested his head on the chest of Jesus at the Last Supper, who was present when Jesus was transfigured and spoke with Elijah and Moses just before His Passion, Death and Resurrection. John was one of the apostles  who accompanied Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane and the only one to stand beneath the cross with Mary, Jesus' mother. John listened to Jesus' words throughout Jesus' three-year ministry and was the first of the apostles to believe in Jesus' resurrection. "[H]e saw and believed," John tells us in today's Gospel, John 290: 1, 2-8, when Peter and John entered the empty tomb and saw "the cloth that had covered [Jesus] head...."

We can fall in love with Jesus just as John fell in love with Jesus.  How?  By listening to His Living Word in the Scriptures, Words that have power to transform our hearts, enlighten our minds and reconcile us to God.  We can also fall in love with Jesus  by staying close to Mary, Jesus' mother, by being with others in their "Gethsemanes" and "Calvaries", as John was with Jesus. And, yes, we can fall in love with Jesus by receiving the Eucharist as John did at the Last Supper and whenever he broke the bread  with others "in memory"of Jesus, being given the power to do what Jesus did at the Last Supper--change bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus--a divine power given to every ordained priest through the bishop.

What am I, what are you, doing to fall in love with Jesus?

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