The Son Of Thunder Grows Up

Feast of St. John the Evangelist 2024

No matter what our age as disciples of Jesus may be, we all have some challenges, some questions we need to answer. Let’s take them starting with the one who is questioning: “who am I?” Then “who is God?” and “what does God want of me?” From there we ask questions about our relationship to others and what I am expected to do with and for them. Saint John was blessed in being able to answer those and many other questions very early in life. And as his counselor, his mentor, the Gospels affirm that he enjoyed the service of Jesus Christ Himself. Moreover, we, reading Scripture some two thousand years after his life, can get pictures of him and his relationship with Christ from the beginning, and then toward the end of that incomparable life.

We first see John in Scripture as a disciple of John the Baptist, the prophet who preached and baptized at the Jordan River, at a popular commercial river ford. This prophet John was not used to holding back his proclamation to prepare the way of the Lord. So he attracted James and his little brother John, fishermen from Galilee, perhaps because they were of similar temperament. “Sons of Thunder,” they were nicknamed. They probably learned impatience and outrage from their dad, the head of that fishing clan. Some time later, as they both followed Jesus on His journeys, a Samaritan town rejected them, and the Thunder boys came to Jesus and asked if they could call down fire from heaven to consume that village, as happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. But Jesus rebuked them. Remember, God deals gently with those He calls, until justice makes it impossible.

We know John learned that lesson over his long life. He is the only evangelist to record the High Priestly prayer of Jesus on the night before He suffered. Then, John heard Jesus give His summative command to love. He had heard this order before, when Jesus taught on the mountain, that His followers must even love their enemies. According to Scripture and Tradition, John had plenty of time left in life to learn the practical lessons of love, in occasional imprisonment and even an assassination attempt. So when he wrote his three letters, at the end of his life, the verb he used to command his disciples was the same one he heard from Jesus himself, self-abasing love of all. That is the lesson we must take with us today.

Our Gospel today is John’s humorous and reverent account of his belief in the Resurrection of Jesus three days after He was executed. Reflect on the repetition of the one verb “run/ran.” Mary Magdalene saw a rolled-back sealing stone and ran to the apostles with her witness. Peter and John ran toward the tomb. Notice that young John outpaced the older Peter, reaching the tomb first, but just peeked in to see the cloths that wrapped Jesus. But he respectfully and in love let Peter be the first into the burial grotto. But he humorously recalled and tells his readers twice that he was the first one there. Loving everyone doesn’t mean we have to lose our sense of humor.

Our psalm today picks up another theme from St. John’s writings. At Christmas, perhaps more than any other liturgical season, we see the glory and light of Christ. “Light dawns for the righteous.” John tells us that in the kingdom of God, to be revealed at Christ’s second coming, there would be no need for lamps, or for that matter sun or moon, because the glory of God gives it life 24/7 and Jesus, the Lamb, will be our lamp. So rejoice in the Lord and give thanks to the Blessed Trinity all the time.