Tag Archives: St John

A death in the desert: a fiction

29 Thursday Oct 2020

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“How will it be when none more saith ‘I saw’? (Browning)

In spite of our efforts he would not eat. I kept telling the men that he could not eat, but as usual they acted as though he were something more than human and was, thereby, immune from the frailties of the flesh. I reminded Xanthus and Valens that while it was true that he was the last of them, he must have been nearly a century old; but they were adamant, he would not pass before the ending of this age. That explained the presence of all the “righteous”; they were waiting for the end times and the coming in glory of the Saviour.

Never had I cared for one so old. It was miraculous enough that he was still with us, and as his nurse I too felt the awe which attached to the one who had stood at the foot of the Cross and watched the Christ die. I had been brought into his house by Mary, the mother of the Christ and I had watched with him and the others as she passed into the hands of her Son. But that was when I was barely sweet and twenty and knew so much. At thrice that, I knew only that I wished I knew as much as I had thought I had known then; perhaps I could have found a way of helping. As it was, I wetted his lips and I sang to him and held his hand. How translucent it was; it was like the finest linen.

Valens broke open a bottle of perfume and the sleeper turned and seemed almost to wake. But it was only when the boy brought the tablet and read “I am the resurrection and the life” that he stirred and the light came into his eyes once more. That smile! Like the last flaring of a fire when poked, for a moment I saw the man I had first known. He spoke as one inspired, though one had to lean in close; that voice, once so deep, was now like unto the reedy cry of the desert bird.

Of all he spoke a record was kept, and it will find its place alongside his other writings I do not doubt. What I recall now is the sadness of his countenance as he spoke of how, as the Christ did not come again as people expected, even some of those who said they believed began to doubt. They spread their discontent, with some even questioning whether he had been at the foot of the Cross; could he be who he said he was? His eyes flickered with his wonted humour as he quipped: “Nay, said I to them, they were written by another John, perhaps?” But half-wits failed to capture the quickness of his wit.

Sitting upright, not without effort or help from me, he looked at us all. “Knowest thou not, little children, how simple it is – love one another! And yet, instead, mankind questions and waits.” Some had the grace to look shamefaced. They knew themselves in the words. “The search for proof that ye seek is not directed aright. I am but a witness and ye may doubt my words, though I saw him and touched him. That testimony is true. But that is not enough. Ye seek signs. Signs were given, are given; that too is not enough. What survives is love, and love begets faith, and faith begets hope and hope begets love. Love is not that we love him, but that though we are sinners, he loves us and always did. What more do ye want?”.

He stopped, his voice failing, and asked for wine; I put the cup to his lips. He smiled one last time and saying “little children, love one another’, he passed from this world to a better one. “But where,” said Cerinthus, “is the Saviour? If he comes not within the dozen years that mark the Apostles, then you must follow me.” And some did. I stayed with Valens and we buried John. They wait still; we have our reward.

The importance of love

26 Sunday Apr 2020

Posted by in Bible, Faith, St. Isaac

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To some, even the use of the word “love” induces a visceral reaction, such, perhaps, has been its over-use. But as the Beloved Disciple reminds us:

7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

In Christ, God reveals His purpose to us. He did not write a manifesto or send us a list of things we must and must not do, He spoke to us in the only language we can understand – that is through another human life. Jesus tells us what God wants for us, but more, much more than that, He shows us what love means. We can understand love only through relationships, and that is what Jesus shows us – the true meaning of love.

That love is a manifestation of the eternal love that is the Holy Trinity. The sanctifying love of the Spirit and of the Son are poured forth for our salvation. it is through Jesus that we receive the gift of eternal life, not because we first love God, but because He first loves us.

If we love others, and He loves us, then, as the Catechism tells us, in this way the Trinitarian love is reflected here on earth as it is in Heaven. Human love is not the cause of our love, it is a manifestation of God’s love. It follows, as St John tells us, that those who claim to know God but do not manifest love speak under the influence of a false spirit. And yet how very hard it is for us to show love for one another.

St John outlines four ways in which God lives is us: if we love one another; if we have been given His Spirit: if we can confess that Jesus is the Son of God; and finally, if we abide in the love of God. If this is so, then keeping God’s commandments isno more burdensome than love itself. Love is not, as we know, without its difficulties. It is far from saccharine and always sweetness and light; but what we suffer when we love we do because we know that in this fallen world it must be so.

St Anselm of Canterbury prayed:

Lord, let me seek you in desiring you:

and desire you in seeking you.

Let me find you by loving you,

and love you in finding you.

As so often when it comes to love, let us leave St Isaac the Syrian to have the final word:

In love did God bring the world into existence;

in love is God going to bring it to that wondrous transformed state,

and in love will the world be swallowed up in the great mystery of the One who has performed all these things;

in love will the whole course of the governance of creation be finally comprised.

Fr Aiden Kimel has some wiser and deeper reflections on this theme here.

 

 

The feast day of St John the Divine

27 Tuesday Dec 2016

Posted by in Bible, Catholic Tradition, Faith, St John

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Today, by long tradition, the Church celebrates the feast of St John, the disciple whom Jesus ‘loved best’. He it was who, again according to tradition, rested upon the Saviour’s breast at the Last Supper, and it was to him that Jesus entrusted His mother in his final agonies on the Cross. The same tradition which tells us these things, tells us he is the author of the Gospel and the three epistles which bear his name; it also tells us he is the author of the vision captured in the ‘Apocalypse’ or ‘Revelation of St John the Divine’. That same tradition tells us that he lived to a great old age.

As the last surviving Apostle, St John provided a direct link back to the earthly ministry of Jesus. Tradition has it that he was much revered by the local community, and that in old age he would be asked often to sum up the message of the Lord Jesus. His answer sometimes disappointed those who expected some profound statement of doctrinal truth. He would say: “My little children, love one another.” After hearing this advice over and over again, several members of the congregation asked St. John: “Master, why do you always say this?” He replied with a gentle smile: “It is the Lord’s command. And if this alone be done, it is enough!”

The image of the last of the Apostles haunted the imagination of the Victorian poet, Robert Browning, who wrote a now all but forgotten poem about his death, called ‘A Death in the Desert’:

If I live yet, it is for good, more love

Through me to men: be nought but ashes here

That keep awhile my semblance, who was John,—

Still, when they scatter, there is left on earth

No one alive who knew (consider this!)

—Saw with his eyes and handled with his hands

That which was from the first, the Word of Life.

How will it be when none more saith ‘I saw’?”

At that point in history, the Apostolic tradition became wholly from memory. But St John had already committed to paper his own account of Jesus, as well as letters to his church and, again if we can credit tradition, written the Revelation whilst in exile on Patmos.

Despite the modern fashion for doubting whether St. John wrote the letters, Gospel and Apocalypse which bear his name, the early church was in no doubt: these books were included in the canon because they were his work; it may be that, as in so much else, we imagine ourselves as so much wiser than the ancients; but it may be, as so often, that we are not so. After all, Polycarp, who was ordained by St John, taught St Irenaeus, and neither of them seemed in any doubt.

The wonderful prologue to the Gospel gives us a true poetic insight into the Divine origin of Jesus, and poses for us the question with which all Christology grapples – how God can have been human and divine – as well as answering it. His understanding that Christ was fully human and fully divine clearly failed to appeal to those who wished to reduce Him to something their imaginations could grasp. St. John was far from meek and mild towards those who denied the truth. This we see in his epistles, but also in the tradition which St. Irenaeus had from Polycarp of his encounter with a notorious heretic Cerinthus in a bath-house. Hearing that the latter was within, John started back, and said “Let us, my brethren, make haste and be gone, lest the bath, wherein is Cerinthus the enemy of the Truth, should fall upon our heads.”

We see the same concern for truth in his epistles, which suggest that not even the witness of the last of the Apostles was enough for some men who claimed to be led by the Spirit. John bore witness to the Truth – a person, not a concept. Like so many of the followers of Jesus, John had seen through a glass darkly, but thereafter he saw in the bright light of the Resurrection. We cannot know precisely why he wrote his Gospel, but we can see clearly enough what drives it – indeed he states as much himself (John 20:31):

these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

It is not like the other Gospels. It tells us but little about the life of Jesus, perhaps assuming that those interested in such things already had access to the accounts of Matthew, Mark and Luke. But what it does tell us unambiguously is what heretics doubted from reading the other texts – which is that Jesus was Divine. He was the Word who, from the beginning, spoke creation into existence. It is not accidental that he concentrates heavily on Christ’s controversies with His opponents; John faced the same doubters throughout his ministry. He stresses his credentials as an eye-witness, and those who take it upon themselves to doubt his testimony, strike at the heart of what he is about – which is the distinction between truth and falsehood. John is, above all, a witness to the Truth and calls us to believe that Jesus is indeed the Christ.

 

St John the Evangelist, pray for us!

 

Gospel: Divine Mercy Sunday Year A

27 Sunday Apr 2014

Posted by in Commentaries, Easter, Faith

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St John 20:19-31

Chrysostom records that it was evening in more than the literal sense, for the disciples’ minds were clouded by grief. Jesus now appears to them, and not even the locked doors can stop him; may it be so with the locked doors of our hearts. His appearance gives us a foretaste of what our resurrected bodies will be like. He stands among them, as Gregory of Nyssa remarks, as God, with, St Cyril tells us, death finally vanquished; His greeting breathes into them the spirit of tranquillity which is the Holy Spirit. St Cyril tells us that the peace He offers is Himself, because He is peace. Irenaeus comments that by showing them the physical marks on His body, He is showing that it really is His body which has risen. Leo the Great comments that the wounds which brought us healing, also bring it to unbelieving hearts. He is truly both human and divine.

Chrysologus comments on how Jesus sends forth the disciples in love on the great commission. They are not, St Cyril remarks, to follow their own will, but that of the Father. Gregory the Great reminds us that the disciples will face great persecution. Gregory of Nazianzus reminds us that the Lord is preparing them to receive the Spirit at Pentecost. The Spirit is the Son’s to give, and, St Athanasius reminds, He gives them the power to remit sins; the powers He gave them then inhere, St Cyprian reminds us, in His Church through the successors of the Apostles.

Gregory the Great tells us that it was our benefit that St Thomas was not present. The Divine Marcy ordained that he would play the part of so many of us and refuse to believe unless he saw for himself. He proves to the disciples and to us that He really was risen in the flesh. St Gregory Nazianzus sees Thomas as the type for all those who want to believe but need to see. St Athanasius points out that Thomas’ doubt leads to one of the most telling confessions of Christ’s divinity – ‘My Lord, my God’. So although all Thomas sees is the flesh, he confesses the divinity through faith. St Leo asks us to take comfort here, for our faith, too, rests on more than the eyes can see. St Cyril comments on the patience Jesus shows with Thomas, that same patience He shows to us all; and He offers us the comfort that those who believe and yet do not see are also blessed.

St Irenaeus comments that John does not need to write everything, but what he writes here is to combat the heresies he foresaw would arise; we are to believe as Thomas did, that He is risen in the flesh and is truly God. If we believe that, we shall come to eternal life in Him

John and Peter: reflections

29 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by in Bible, Early Church, Faith, St John

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peter-and-john-burnandOur resident humourist. Bosco, seems to think that reading the Bible is a bit of a waste of time – after all, if you are ‘saved’ what more do you need?  Why, for example, bother to reflect on what St John’s Gospel has to say about Peter and John? The answer lies in Bosco’s own reflection. From what we can tell of it, the Johannine community, rather like Bosco and others here, put a great deal of weight on personal revelation and the in-dwelling of the Spirit. That was fine until different members of the Community disagreed on something as fundamental as whether Jesus was God Incarnate: who was right?  Well, if both sides claimed the Spirit as the sanction for their belief, then there was no way of answering the question; indeed, such a division of opinion threw doubt on the whole idea that being inspired by the Spirit was enough. How could that be so when the Spirit seemed to be telling believers something different?

No less a figure than St John was telling his church that Jesus was the Word Incarnate, that Christ had come in the flesh; but others denied that, as we see in John’s second epistle. Indeed, we see from the third epistle that a local elder, Diotrephes, was denying John himself, and those who adhered to him, fellowship. Here was a fellow who was full of himself and so clear he was guided that he denied even one of the Apostles; how ‘Spirit-filled’ was that?  How often in the history of Christianity have we seen the same phenomenon? And how should it not be so? If you are convinced you are filled with, and guided by, the Holy Spirit, the natural tendency of man to stubborn pride is increased; no doubt Diotrephes thought he was guided by the Spirit; so did St John.

It was precisely that dilemma, or so I have tried to suggest from my reading of St John’s Gospel, which makes it difficult to maintain the view of those like Bultmann who see in John and Peter a rivalry. They seem to me to suggest two different approaches in the early Church, whose tendences we see to this day; but they needed each other. Those members of the Johannine community who followed the Apostle never denied their inspiration by the Spirit, but they sought to prove their case by showing that what they believed and practised was authenticated by the Petrine/Apostolic community, whose greater emphasis on order and church discipline may have looked duller, but provided a greater defence against fracturing and schism – provided it was not taken to the point of ossification.

These are the dangers which have haunted the Church from its origins. It is all fine and wonderful to be filled by the Spirit, but if what we think we are told by that inspiration is not in line with what the Church holds, we have two choices: one is to rein in our own tendencies; the other is to dismiss the Church as in some way having fallen away, despite the clear statement of Jesus that it would never be so. There is, I sometimes think, nothing more dangerous to the soul than the belief that what inspires me is right and that means that I can dismiss the billions of Christians who have lived as being, in some way, less guided than I am.

At one end lies the sort of licentiousness which Paul found in Corinth and the errors he found in Galatia; at the other lies the sort of ossification which insists that unless a fellow wears a special costume from a previous age and says a certain set of words in a dead language in a certain way, Christ will not visit us. Both are wrong. Our Faith works best in society, and for us, when Peter and John work together; they needed each other, and their spiritual descendants do to this day.

Peter and John (3)

29 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by in Bible, Early Church, Faith, St John

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St_Peter_and_St_John_for_the_TransfigurationIn this short series I have been exploring what, if anything, the relationship between Peter and ‘the Beloved Disciple’ as depicted in John’s Gospel might tell us about the earliest Christian communities. Whether there was a Johannine ‘community’ is still a matter of scholarly discussion, but from the study undertaken here we can see how the writers of John’s Gospel and their view of John and Peter saw things.

It may be me, but the Johannine community has an attitude to the Apostolic one (as we might call the Petrine followers) which is more than a little condescending. They share the same Gospel message, but the Johannine community emphasises its intimacy with Jesus (via the ‘Beloved Disciple’) and the accompanying spiritual insight this brings with it. By contrast, the Apostolic community, whilst of course, inheritors of the same Gospel, are more dependant on empirical evidence and history for a more limited insight. This is modified, or again, so it seems to me, by Chapter 21, where we see more how John and Peter can serve each other.

The Beloved Disciple serves as a vehicle for Peter’s access to jesus. In chapter 13 Peter communicates his questions to Jesus through the BD; in chapter 18 he is allowed access to the courtyard through the BD; in chapter 21, he informs Peter that Jesus is on the shore. But the BD does not serve as a source of revelation, or saving faith, for Peter or those he represents.

The Johannine Christians know and abide in Jesus in a special way, and so have something to offer Peter and his community. But the Johannine community is, by the time chapter 21 was written, being subject to internal divisions and schisms; in this context, faith and inspiration are not enough to settle the problems, and, indeed, it seems, from the Johannine letters that there was a division. In this context, Peter and the Apostolic community actually have something some of the splitting Johannine community need and value

The BD may be close to the heart and mind of Jesus, but Peter is the leader and the spokesman; in 13:24 Peter directs the BD to ask the question which is in the minds of all the disciples, and the BD follows his direction. In 20:4-8, the BD arrives at the tomb first and waits for Peter before he goes in. Peter’s leadership seems to matter. Indeed, in chapter 21, Peter exercises authority both as a fisherman and as a disciple of Jesus. When the BD discerns the identity of Jesus he tells Peter. Jesus tells Peter to tend his flock and to follow him even to the point of death; the BD follows both Jesus and Peter. Such is the leadership the Gospel accords Peter.

In a situation where the Johannine community was fracturing, the limits if ‘inspiration’ and ‘the Spirit’ were clear in a way they had not previously been. In such a situation the question of authority was highlighted. Peter symbolises that authority. With John’s death, his fractured community could not simply rely on inspiration – that had already produced schism. In that context, Peter and Apostolic authority, whatever his, and its, limitations, assumed the sort of significance that I have tried to describe here.

I should be most interested to know what readers make of this attempt.

Peter and John (2)

27 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by in Bible, Commentaries, Early Church, Faith

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saint-peter-the-apostle1John’s Gospel falls into two main divisions: the Book of Signs (Chapters 1-12) and the Book of Glory (Chapters 13-20) with an epilogue (Chapter 21) -and if you want, a prologue in John 1:1-18; the basis for the relationship between John and Peter is set out in the Book of Signs, which is a portrayal of Peter.  There the portrait would surprise no one with a knowledge of the Synoptic Gospels; he has a central place in the calling of the disciples and in the Christological confession os John 6:60-71; but the account we are given and the picture we get is not simply that of the Synoptics.

In John’s account, it is Andrew who gets the first calling and makes the first commitment to Jesus, but Peter’s naming and commissioning in Chapter 21 single him out for a special charge. In John 6:60-71, Peter represents those who remain faithful at a time when other followers fall away en masse, especially in Galilee. In his three-part confession, Peter models John’s understanding of what it means to become a believer and a true disciple. Not all disciples share in the eternal life, because not all remain faithful. It is also worth noting that unlike Matthew and Mark, John never identifies Peter with Satan. His faith might not be ideal, but it is exemplary; he does not stand on some pedestal above the others, but no aspersions are cast on his character or faith; he plays an integral part in the Christian community which followed Jesus.

Peter’s leadership is evident in the Book of Glory: in the revelation of the betrayer, Peter speaks for the community; it is to him that Mary reports what she found at the tomb; when he and the beloved disciple stop at the tomb, it is Peter who goes in first; when the Beloved disciples realises who is on the shore, he reports it to Peter; Peter leads the way to shore and hauls up the full, unbroken net; he is given the pastoral charge of the sheep by Jesus. It is true that in the footwashing scene he misunderstands the actions of Jesus, but even that reveals the extreme attachment he has to Jesus. In Chapter 13:36-38, where Jesus predicts Peter’s denials, we see another example of Peter representing the eager, if sometimes ignorant, commitment of the Twelve. Peter acts impulsively out of loyalty and love when he takes his sword to defend Jesus. Even the denials (John 18:15-18, 25-27) are less condemnatory than it the Synoptics.

The threefold repetition of the questions to Peter, and the mention of a coal fire link the denials with a restoration and commission in John 21:15-19. Peter’s answers do not reflect that badly on him; they focus on his action in the garden rather than on his allegiance to Jesus.  John’s account of the third denial does not have the ‘oaths and curses’ of the Synoptics, neither does Peter deny he knew Jesus.  Although Jesus insists Peter will not be able to follow him as he goes through his last hour (13:36), he calls Peter anew in John 21:19, 22.  The certainty of Peter’s love is highlighted by his language in Chapter 21; the threefold repetition shows the strength and purity of that love.

Peter’s discipleship extends to the point of Jesus’ death (John 21:18-19). His martyrdom is commended as a means of glorifying God. His arrest and death are an extension of his following Jesus; this, in short, is Peter as leader, spokesman, witness, disciple and pastor.

Now to turn to the portrayal of the Beloved Disciple, before concluding with an attempt to analyse the relationship and its significance for the Johannine community.

Peter and John (1)

27 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by in Bible, Commentaries, Early Church, Faith

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st-johnOn my counting the figure designated ‘the Beloved Disciple’ appears seven times in the Gospel according to St John; in all but one of them he is closely associated with Peter, which suggests the Evangelist thinks their relationship important. Modern exegesis has tended to see it as one of rivalry, with the ‘Johannine community’ being contrasted favourably with the Petrine one. This has certainly been the tendency of Rudolf Bultmann (The Gospel of John, (1971)) and those influenced by him, who see in John the representative of a Gentile Christianity which is both more active and creative than Peter’s Jewish Christianity which is more passive in its reception of tradition. Peter, in this view, comes to stand for a negative strain in the Gospel that was beginning to introduce negative or objectionable understandings. Others have gone so far as to see a struggle between Spirit-filled Christianity (as represented by John) and official, ecclesiastical Christianity as represented by Peter.

The late Fr Raymond Brown went, as was his wont, even further, suggesting that the Beloved Disciple was portrayed so as to offset the dominance of the Twelve in the developing Church and to teach that ‘ecclesiastical authority is not the sole criteria for judging importance in the following of Jesus’ (Community of the Beloved Disciple (1979),191).

Centuries of dispute over the identity of the ‘Beloved Disciple’ have signally failed to satisfy scholars enough to produce a consensus, and even a scholar I admire as much as I do Richard Bauckham gets close to the old schoolboy parody that the Illiad wasn’t written by Homer, but another bloke of the same name, and you pays your money and you takes your choice. The Evangelist chose not to name him, and we’d be wise to respect that. Here, though, I want to look at this idea that there is a rivalry going on and that we should read John and Peter as types of early Christianity in conflict.

The complex and heavily symbolic nature of John’s Gospel needs no emphasising; the book is one which a narrative which operates at a number of levels, where signs and metaphors abound, and to me the idea that the portrayal of the relationship between the Beloved Disciple and Peter can be reduced to such a simplistic reading seems unlikely. Of course, the whole idea that there was a ‘Johannine’ community, is to some extent a scholarly construct, but it is not without merit, and provides us with a possible hermeneutic through which to read the relationship not as a rivalry, but as a way of correctly any supposition to that effect.

We know, from the epistles, that the Johannine community had its own crisis of authority, where not even John’s links with the Saviour were enough to persuade those who thought that Christ was not God Incarnate, otherwise. Charles Hill has countered the old view that John’s Gospel had gnostic origins by showing that whilst the Gnostics certainly (mis)used it, the orthodox were equally attached to it, which posits the idea that parts of the Johnannine community was absorbed into the Church whilst part of it went Gnostic. What I want to do in the next couple of posts is to suggest that if we read John’s Gospel around a different view of Peter and John, we may get some insight into the process.