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Master·evangeli.net

Today's Gospel + short theological explanation

December 27th: Feast of Saint John, Apostle and evangelist
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Gospel text (Jn 20:2-8): On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we do not know where they put him.” So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb (…). Simon Peter arrived (…) he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple (…) saw and believed.

St. John, apostle and evangelist

EDITORIAL TEAM evangeli.net (based on texts by Benedict XVI) (Città del Vaticano, Vatican)

Today, we remember another Member of the Apostolic College: John, son of Zebedee and brother of James. His typically Jewish name means "The Lord has worked grace". He was mending his nets on the shore of Lake Tiberias, when Jesus called him. John was always among the small group Jesus took with him on specific occasions. He is the author of the fourth Gospel, of three letters and of the Revelation.

In the Church of Jerusalem he was one of the "pillars". According to tradition, John is the "disciple whom Jesus loved" who laid his head against the Teacher’s breast at the Last Supper, stood at the foot of the Cross together with the Mother of Jesus and witnessed both the empty tomb and the presence of the Risen One Himself. The Oriental Church calls him simply "the Theologian" (that is, the one who can speak in accessible terms of the divine).

—A characteristic theme of John is love. He does not make an abstract treaty of it because true love, by its very nature, always makes direct reference to real people.