Bishop Daniel>>St. John The Beloved
St. John is a unique witness to both the life of Christ and the earliest Church. St. John along with his brother St. James, the sons of Zebedee who were also known as the Sons of Thunder, were among Our Lord’s first Apostles being called immediately after Saints Andrew and Peter.
St. John, along with Saints James and Peter, made up a unique inner circle among the Apostles. The three men in that inner circle were the only witnesses to the healing of St. Peter’s mother-in-law (St. Mark 1:29), the Great Catch of Fish (St. Luke 5:10), the raising of the daughter of Jairus (St. Mark 5:37 and St. Luke 8:51), the Transfiguration (St. Matthew 17:1; St. Mark 9:2; and St. Luke 9:28), and the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane (St. Matthew 26:37; St. Mark 14:33).
In spite of being one of only three witnesses at all of those events, St. John chose not to recount those events in his own account of the Life of Christ. In addition to being part of Jesus’ “Inner Circle,” St. John was the disciple “whom Jesus loved” (St. John 13:23) and the “other disciple” who followed St. Peter into the courtyard of the High Priest once Jesus had been captured (St. John 18:15).
Finally, unique among all of the disciples, St. John was the only Apostle present at the foot of the cross during the crucifixion, and it was to St. John that Our Lord entrusted His Blessed Mother (St. John 19:25-27).
He was the only apostolic witness to the death of Jesus and one of the first witnesses to His resurrection. He was there at Pentecost, encountered the converted Paul of Tarsus, and saw his own brother slaughtered in the streets of Jerusalem. He cared for the Blessed Virgin Mary, attending to her as a son would until her Blessed Son called His Holy Mother to return to Him.
They tried to martyr St. John and instead exiled him to the island of Patmos. It was during his exile on Patmos that he received his beatific vision of Heaven which he recorded at the Book of the Revelation.
He composed a Gospel, three epistles, and a revelation of Heaven. Then, completely unique among the Apostles, he died peacefully and went on to again see the face of the Lord who loved him and whom he loved in return.
May his prayer and blessings be with us all.
#StJohnTheEvangelist #JohnTheBeloved
#Revelation #GospleOfStJohn #3EpistlesOfStJOhn
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