Saturday, December 26, 2020

Homily for the Feast of St. John - December 27, 2020

 

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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