<\/p>\n
He was a different sort of person than the other Apostles- younger, and more of a thinker.\u00a0 His Gospel doesn\u2019t track with the other three Gospels. The stories recorded in it are different and unique, like the Wedding Feast at Cana, the Prodigal Son, and the Woman at the Well.\u00a0 And his message has a deeper theological content, like the beginning of his Gospel that explores the Trinity, and the sixth chapter that deals with the bread of life.\u00a0 Today we celebrate his feast, the feast of John the Evangelist.<\/p>\n
More than any other of the Gospel writers, John stressed the role of the Incarnation in God\u2019s relationship with us.\u00a0 John said that God\u2019s love for us was so great that He sent His only begotten son into the world to live as one of us.\u00a0 That is the Incarnation, one of the great mysteries of our Faith.\u00a0 And John also emphasized his personal role as an eye witness.\u00a0 That should be a source of joy to us- an eye witness that personally recorded what happened.\u00a0 Why, because the Gospel story of Jesus\u2019 life was not just recorded by some folks who heard it second or third hand, but rather, by eye witnesses, people who were involved.<\/p>\n
We hear about two such eye witness accounts this morning.\u00a0 First, in his letter, John brings to us the reality of the Incarnation. \u00a0First He says: \u201cWhat was from the beginning.\u201d\u00a0 Here he is referring to the fact that Jesus was from the beginning and is God.\u00a0 Then he says \u201cWhat we heard, what we have seen with our own eyes, what we have looked upon and touched with our hands concerns the Word of Life\u201d.\u00a0 Just imagine- this man heard, looked at, and touched the real thing- God almighty in human form.\u00a0 John is spreading this good and exciting news so that we, too can fellowship with Jesus- that is his avowed purpose, and is something that should bring us joy.<\/p>\n
The second eye witness account is of another great mystery of our Faith- the Resurrection.\u00a0 John was there too. \u00a0He witnessed the trial, the crucifixion, and the burial of Jesus personally, together with the stone rolled against the tomb and the Roman Guards so that no predicted Resurrection could be staged.\u00a0 And yet, what do we hear in the Gospel?\u00a0 John\u2019s first hand witness to the Resurrection.\u00a0 Inexplicably, the stone was rolled back, the guards were gone, and the burial cloths- one for the head and one for the body- were separately and neatly rolled up.\u00a0 As John entered the tomb and saw, he says he believed.\u00a0 It had all come together for him, all the prophecies he had recorded in his Gospel- the suffering, death, and resurrection on the third day were fulfilled.<\/p>\n
We have a choice to believe or not.\u00a0 We are not eye witnesses, just people who have had the good fortune to hear the stories handed down by the eye witness.\u00a0 We are challenged to believe, really believe in these two great mysteries- the Incarnation and the Resurrection.\u00a0 What they mean is everlasting life for those of us who believe.\u00a0 So believe, rejoice, and live your lives in the Lord.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thursday in the Octave of Christmas St. John the Evangelist 1 Jn 1: 1-4; John 20: 1a, 2-8 Dc. Larry Brockman He was a different sort of person than the other Apostles- younger, and more of a thinker.\u00a0 His Gospel doesn\u2019t track with the other three Gospels. The stories recorded in it are different […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[177,178],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions\/264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}