“Love one another“
“According to Jerome, Saint John stayed on in Ephesus into his extreme old age. He grew so feeble that he had to be supported by his disciples on his way to the church and was hardly able to speak. At every pause, however, he repeated the same words: ‘My sons, love one another!‘ One day the brethren, wondering at this, asked him: ‘Master, why are you always saying the same thing?‘ The saint replied: ‘Because it is the commandment of the Lord, and if this alone is obeyed, it is enough.‘“
Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend. Readings on the Saints, Princeton University Press 1993, p. 55
Saint John the Apostle, the younger brother of Saint James the Great, son of Zebedee and Salome, eventually died a natural death at the age of 93 or 94 in the city of Ephesus, according to Saint Irenaeus during the reign of the emperor Trajan. When called by Christ to be one of His Twelve Apostles, he was probably the youngest among them.
After the Ascension of the Lord Saint John took care of the Blessed Virgin Mary and preached the faith first in Jerusalem, then in Ephesus. Five books of Sacred Scripture are written by him: the Gospel according to Saint John, the Apocalypse, and three letters.
It is a custom to drink a cup of blessed red wine on Saint John‘s feast day, the 27th December, which symbolizes the supernatural love with which Saint John, the beloved disciple, was filled to the brim of his heart and soul. The blessed wine is a sacramental which imparts on those who drink it “the love of Saint John“. The laity can also bring their own bottles of wine and oil for a priestly blessing on his feast day. What is the background for this tradition? We will look at two stories from the life of Saint John as told in The Golden Legend.
“Children, let us not love in word and speech, but in action and truth.“
1 John 3: 18
“I was overjoyed to find some of your children walking in truth according to the commandment given us by the Father. And now I am asking you, dear lady, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but only the one we have had from the beginning – that we should love one another. And this is love, to walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment as you have heard since the beginning, to live in it.“
2 John v. 4-6; 12-13
“There are several things I have to tell you, but I have thought it best not to do this by paper and ink. I hope instead to visit you and speak to you in person, so that our joy may be complete. The children of your chosen sister greet you.“
“The Elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that everything is going well, just as all is well with you spiritually. I was overjoyed when some brothers came and testified to your faithfulness to the truth, just as you do walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my children are walking in the truth.“
3 John v. 1-4
Poisoned wine, and Saint John drinks with faith
“When Saint John had preached throughout the region of Asia, the idol-worshippers stirred up a riot among the populace, and they dragged him to the temple of Diana and tried to force him to offer sacrifice to the goddess. Then the saint proposed this alternative: if by invoking Diana they overturned the church of Christ, he would offer sacrifice to the idols; but if by invoking Christ he destroyed Diana‘s temple, they would believe in Christ. To this proposal the greater number of the people gave their consent. When all had gone out of the building, the apostle prayed, the temple collapsed to the ground, and the statue of Diana was reduced to dust.
Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend. Readings on the Saints, Princeton University Press 1993, p. 53
Thereupon the high priest Aristodemus incited a still greater commotion among the people, and two parties were at the point of coming to blows. The apostle asked the priest: ‘What do you want me to do to restore order?‘ He answered: ‘If you want me to believe in your God, I will give you poison to drink. If it does you no harm, it will be clear that your master is the true God.‘ John replied: ‘Do as you say!‘ ‘But first,‘ came the answer, ‘I want you to see it kill some others, to make you fear its power the more.‘ So Aristodemus (…) obtained the release of two criminals condemned to decapitation, and, in the presence of the crowd, gave them the poison. They drank it and fell dead. Then the apostle took the cup, armed himself with the sign of the cross, drained the drink, and suffered no harm; and all present began to praise God.
Aristodemus, however, was not yet convinced and said: ‘If you can bring the two dead men back to life, I will not hesitate to believe.‘ The apostle handed him his cloak. ‘Why do you give me your cloak?‘ the other asked. John‘s answer: ‘To make you think twice and give up your unbelief!‘ ‘No mantle of yours will ever make me believe!‘ the priest retorted. John said: ‘Go and spread this cloak over the corpses, and say, ‘The apostle of Christ has sent me to you, that you may rise in the name of Christ.‘ He did as he was bidden, and the dead men arose at once. Then the high priest and the proconsul believed, and the apostle baptized them and their families.“
Saint John before the Latin Gate, exiled to the island of Patmos
The apostle also survived a bath of hot oil just like the three young Hebrew men Ananias, Azarias and Misael came out unharmed of the blazing furnace… This event is remembered on the 6th May.
“When, after Pentecost, the apostles separated, John, apostle and evangelist, beloved of Christ and chosen as a virgin, went to Asia and there founded many churches. The emperor Domitian, hearing of his fame, summoned him to Rome and had him plunged into a caldron of boiling oil outside the gate called the Porta Latina; but the blessed John came out untouched, just as he had avoided corruption of the flesh. Seeing that this treatment had not deterred him from preaching, the emperor exiled him to the island of Patmos, where, living alone, he wrote the Apocalypse, the Book of Revelation. That same year the emperor was murdered because of his cruelty, and the Senate revoked all his decrees. Thus it came about that John, who had been deported unjustly, returned to Ephesus with honor, and the crowds ran out to meet him, crying: ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!‘“
Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend. Readings on the Saints, Princeton University Press 1993, p. 51; 284
“Then at the city portal called the Latin Gate he was plunged into a caldron of hot oil over a blazing fire, but felt no pain and came out unscathed. (Therefore the Christians built a church at the spot and solemnized the day as the day of the apostle‘s martyrdom.)“
“Look, he is coming on the clouds; every eye shall see him, even those who pierced him, and all the races of the earth will mourn over him. So it shall be. Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.
Apocalypse 1: 7-11
I, John, your brother and partner in hardships, in the kingdom and in perseverance in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the Word of God and of testimony to Jesus; it was the Lord‘s Day and I was in spirit, and I heard a loud voice behind me, like the sound of a trumpet, saying: ‘Write down in a book all that you see, and send it to the seven churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.‘“
On the backside of the bottle of white wine from the Benedictine Abbey of Le Barroux, Provence, France, which I brought today to the special blessing of the feast day of Saint John one finds the following lines which incorporate a quote from Le petit prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry:
“L’essentiel est invisible aux yeux. On ne voit bien qu’avec le coeur. Fermez les yeux, ouvrez votre coeur: vous verrez briller ce quelque chose d‘ineffable et d‘enivrant qui a pour nom: charité. Cette lumière s‘eteint si elle n‘est pas transmise.“
“What is essential is invisible to the eye. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. Close your eyes, open your hearts: you will see the ineffable and inebriant thing that is called: love. This light expires unless it is transmitted.“
Saint John, holy Apostle and Evangelist, patron saint of love, loyalty, and friendships, pray for us!
Post scriptum: The disciples of Saint John the Apostle
Saint John discipled both Saint Polycarp of Smyrna as well as Saint Ignatius of Antioch. Saint Irenaeus, the bishop of Lyon who wrote a book entitled Against heresies, was taught by Saint Polycarp and received many stories about Saint John from him.
“One should not seek among others the truth that can be easily gotten from the Church. For in her, as in a rich treasury, the apostles have placed all that pertains to truth, so that everyone can drink this beverage of life. She is the door of life.”
Saint Irenaeus of Lyon
“With God, nothing is empty of meaning, and nothing is without symbolism.“
Saint Irenaeus of Lyon, holy bishop and martyr, pray for us!