Bishop Barron's Gospel Reflection December 27, 2019

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Friday, December 27, 2019

Feast of Saint John

John 20:1A, 2-8

Friends, on this feast of St. John, our Gospel tells of his coming to faith in the Resurrection when he saw the empty tomb. From this grave of Jesus, we learn that everything we took to be the case is not the case; that the supposed laws of nature aren’t laws after all; that what always moved this way, now moves that way. God is the enemy of death, and he has shown us his power over death in the most unambiguous way; our lives should not be dominated by the fear of death, and we see the proof of this in the most vivid way imaginable. Some people think that they will make the Resurrection more intelligible or more acceptable to modern people if they allegorize it away, turning it into a vague symbol of the perdurance of Jesus’ cause. But then his grave would be, like the grave of any ordinary hero, sad, wistful, reassuring. Notice please that no cult of Jesus’ tomb ever developed in Christianity; we don’t look back with easy wistfulness. Rather, we allow ourselves to be surprised, turned upside down by it. Feast of Saint John, Apostle and evangelist Lectionary: 697 Reading 1 1 Jn 1:1-4 Beloved: What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands concerns the Word of life — for the life was made visible; we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was made visible to us— what we have seen and heard we proclaim now to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; for our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing this so that our joy may be complete. Gospel Jn 20:1a and 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. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, 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 also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed.