The Word of Life

The texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today are for the feast of St. John the Evangelist, the author of the fourth book of the Gospel. The text from the first letter of John reveals his desire to share the story of Jesus with us so that we might share the joy that he knows in relationship with Jesus. The intimate pictures in the Gospel which include John, described as the one whom Jesus loved, are capped as John lying on Jesus breast at the Last Supper. The presentation of the intimate relationship with the Divine is beautifully mystical in John’s Gospel. The psalmist tells of the knowledge of the grandeur of God from observation of the heavens which surround us. Certainly this observation of the majesty of the universe was more easily observed in the dark skies of the Jesus time and place then from the light pollution which obscures the celestial canopy. The passage from the Gospel of John relates how Peter and John find the empty tomb and are convinced of the Resurrection on that first Easter morning. The liturgy through John reminds us that the Word was made flesh in the Incarnation and the Lord transcended death in the Resurrection, thus contacting two fundamental touchstones of Christianity.