Homily
for the Solemnity of St. John
December
27, 2020
The
Beloved Disciple
Happy feast day of St. John! This is
the patronal feast of this beautiful Basilica, which is why we are celebrating
his feast rather than the Feast of the Holy Family, which the rest of the
church celebrates today. And there is so much we can say about this amazing man
who is often called “The Beloved Disciple”.
First, that name alone is amazing.
Wouldn’t it be great to be “the disciple whom Jesus loved”? I believe that John
chose to refer to himself by such a name precisely because WE are suppose to
follow in John’s footsteps to become that Beloved Disciple. How can we do that?
Reflecting on John’s life, I want to mention three ways.
First, intimacy with Christ in prayer.
It is mentioned in the Gospels that John actually reclined on Jesus’ chest
during the Last Supper. He was so close to Jesus that he could hear the beating
of the Sacred Heart. Are you so close to Jesus that you hear His heartbeat?
There are actually three forms of
prayer, each building upon the other. The first is called vocal prayer. That’s
when we recite pre-written prayers, like the Our Father and Hail Mary. That is
good, but it should lead to the second type of prayer, called mental prayer.
This type of prayer is speaking to the Lord in our mind, or meditating on His
words in the Scriptures or other spiritual books. This is a very good way to
pray. But there is a third way, called contemplation – this means simply
enjoying being in God’s presence. In contemplation, we quiet our minds and
simply love Him. A good way to do this is to repeat short prayers such as the
ancient prayer called the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have
mercy on me, a sinner.” Or the short prayer, “Jesus, I trust in You.” Pray this
over and over again until your mind settles down and rests in His presence.
This contemplation is just pure loving attention to Jesus Himself – the kind of
loving attention that John gave to Jesus.
A second thing we can learn from the
life of John is to be faithful to the Cross. Notice how John is the only
disciple present when Jesus was crucified. Oh, the other disciples loved being
around Jesus when it was easy, when He was doing all sorts of miracles and
multiplying bread and healing people…but only one could be faithful when Jesus
was rejected and crucified. Can we be faithful to Jesus to the Cross?
During seminary, I had the privilege
of teaching at the same school that St. Elizabeth Ann Seton founded. There was
a young boy in my fifth-grade class named Zach. He was a quiet, happy kid –
nothing out-of-the-ordinary. Towards the end of the year, however, his teacher
called me and told me about Zach’s home life – his mother was so depressed that
she couldn’t get out of bed, and the father was working around-the-clock so he
was rarely home. The teacher and I decided to go and visit Zach and take him
out for ice cream so he’d get a break from that tough home life. When we got to
Zach’s house, we paid a visit to his mother, who laying in bed with the blinds
drawn (in the middle of the afternoon), looking truly lethargic. We chatted
with her a bit, but something she said struck me deeply: she said, “Despite all
this, I still love God so much.” Wow – this woman, who suffered from crippling
depression and anxiety, who couldn’t get out of bed and couldn’t care for her
son – still stayed faithful to God despite the Cross. Surely she would be
tempted to ask, “Why me?” or “God, why haven’t You taken this away?” But she
loved the Lord through the Cross. John the Evangelist did the same – can you
and I, in the midst of the Cross, say, “God, I love You. I trust in You.” Then
we will be the Beloved Disciple.
Finally, John shows us what it means
to have devotion to Mary. She was given to John as mother, and it says that
John “welcomed her into his home”. From that moment onward, John saw himself as
a son of the Blessed Mother, and had such a deep love and devotion to her.
In fact, all of the saints had such
a devotion as well. I think of Pope St. John Paul the Great, who lost his
mother at the young age of eight. After his mother’s death, his father took him
to the famous Polish shrine of Our Lady of Czestahowa, where, kneeling before
the image of Mary, the boy cried out, “You must be my mother now, Mary.”
He carried that devotion to Mary
into his papacy – in fact, his motto was “Totus Tuus” – to Jesus through Mary.
If you’ve ever been to St. Peter’s Square you may notice a mural of the Blessed
Mother on the side of the Apostolic Palace, where the pope lives. That mural
has a great story behind it. In 1981, Pope John Paul II was suddenly shot in
St. Peter’s Square by a deranged gunman, and he bled so much that his very life
was in jeopardy. As he was being rushed to the hospital, the Pope looked
frantically all around the square to find some image of Mary to comfort him as
he was bleeding to death – but there were no images of Mary anywhere in the
square – no statues, murals, paintings – nothing! By a true miracle, the Pope
survived the shooting, and when he returned to the Apostolic Palace he
commissioned a giant mural of Our Lady to be placed in St. Peter’s Square, so
that all may see that She is protecting the Church. And the bullet that was
taken from the Pope’s side? He asked that it be attached to the crown of the
famous statue of Mary of Our Lady of Fatima.
Every Catholic should “welcome Mary
into their home” as John the Evangelist did. We can do so by honoring her image
in our home through a statue or holy picture, by praying the Rosary together as
a family, and by frequently thinking of her throughout the day, asking for her
intercession and love.
My friends, John doesn’t have to be
the only Beloved Disciple. If we follow his example of intimacy with
Christ in prayer, faithfulness to the Cross, and welcoming Mary into our home,
we too can be called Beloved Disciples. I don’t know about you, but I would
love to hear Jesus consider me a close friend, a beloved disciple.
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