Saturday
of the
Seventh
Week of Easter
May 30th
READING: John 21:20-25
Peter turned and saw the
disciple whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next
to Jesus at the supper and had said, ‘Lord, who is it that is going to betray
you?’ When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, what about him?’ Jesus said
to him, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?
Follow me!’ So the rumour spread in the community that this disciple would not
die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, ‘If it is my will
that he remain until I come, what is that to you?’
This is the disciple who is
testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony
is true. But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of
them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the
books that would be written.
~~~
New Revised Standard Version
Bible: Anglicised Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993, 1995 the Division
of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the
United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
REFLECTION
“Follow me.” They are, as
it were, the last “live” words of the visible risen Lord to his followers. John
reports earlier words in the following sentence, but “follow me” is the last
resounding command of Jesus. Follow me, through ups, down, twists, turns, high
days and lows, manic times and ennui times.
In this denouement John
turns to his own credentials – credentials in Christ. Paul would do the same in
his writings: “Paul, called …”. It’s the only credential that is required. “Paul
… called.” “Beloved Disciple, testifying truth.”
Die to self, be
translucent Christ-bearers. And that is possible, Jesus told us through John
over and again, only as we surrender ourselves to the Spirit who makes Jesus
present.
It’s not the last we’ll
hear of John. He will write three increasingly astringent epistles, almost but
not at all contradicting his call to love. Because to love is not the same as to
be a doormat. If John was later somewhat acerbic it’s because his faith
community were failing their call to be a beacon of truth and light and love: “Beloved,
do not imitate what is evil,” John would write through clenched quill.
There is much in post-canonical[1]
Christianity that would have had the beloved disciple reaching for his quill
again: beloved, do not imitate the worst charlatanism of the world around you. But
the “much more to tell” that John alludes to is quite simple really: bear love,
bear light, bear compassion and justice, bear Christ. May the paraclete dwell
alongside, within us. Thus equipped we may yet be Christ-bearers in a
post-Covid-19 (but in any case a post-holocaust, post-Hiroshima) world.
Love one another.
[I will leave my Easter
season reflections here, and return after a short break with reflections based
on daily Mass readings … but perhaps not seven times a week! My interpretation
of the Creed will return soon, too.]
No comments:
Post a Comment