Sermon V. On Blessed John the Evangelist

SERMON V.

ON BLESSED JOHN THE EVANGELIST.

Peter, having turned, saw that disciple, whom Jesus loved, following. John 21:20.

Note that four things are here to be marked beforehand at first sight:

I. Why does John declare that he was a disciple of the Lord? II. Through what is it proved that the Lord loved him especially? III. When is he shown to have followed Jesus? IV. What reward did he receive on account of this, because he faithfully followed Jesus?

I.

On the first, note that Blessed John the Evangelist is therefore especially asserted to be the disciple of the Lord, because he learned those four lessons which that great and truthful Teacher Jesus read, and fulfilled them by works. The first was the lesson of virginal truth. The second was of inestimable humility. The third was of deifying charity. The fourth was of extraordinary patience or gentleness. He read the first in the virginal womb or lap. He read the second in the animal manger. He read the third in the prepared upper room. He read the fourth on the gibbet of the cross.

I. Therefore in the first lesson, which that good Teacher Jesus read in the virginal womb or lap, virginal purity is marvelously commended. For through this, that Christ deigned to be conceived and born only from a Virgin, and through this, that he wished to suck only virginal breasts, he plainly gives all men to understand that above all things he embraces virginal purity and prefers it to the state of all men. Hence Jerome writes against Jovinian, on that place: Behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb: "If virginity is not preferred to marriage, why did the Holy Spirit not choose a married woman, why not a widow?" 2. For at that time there was also Anna, daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher, remarkable in modesty and always occupied with prayers and fasts in the temple of God. Therefore Blessed John the Evangelist, knowing from divine revelation itself that Christ supremely loves virginity, despising the bond of marriage, remained a virgin forever. 3. Hence it is sung in a certain Responsory: "Jesus loved John, whom the special prerogative of chastity had made worthy of a fuller love, because, chosen by him a virgin, he remained a virgin forever." Blessed therefore is he who with John has remained a virgin on account of Christ. 4. But very wretched and unhappy is he who, like a beast rotting in its own dung, has departed in the uncleanness of fornication. For the Apostle says at Hebrews 13:4: Fornicators and adulterers God will judge. The Gloss says, "he will condemn eternally."

II. Secondly, the Lord read the lesson of incomparable humility, lying in a manger. For was it not inestimable humility that he whom "heaven and the heavens of heavens cannot contain, as is said in the fourth responsory, eighth, wished to be placed in a narrow manger," wrapped in the cloths of poverty? This good disciple learned this lesson and carried it out in work, which can be clearly proved from this. 1. That nowhere, neither in his Gospel, nor in his epistles, nor in his Apocalypse, does he name himself an Apostle, but only a disciple and servant of Jesus Christ. 2. The humility of John can also be considered in this, that when, with Mary Magdalene announcing that Christ had been taken away, he had run ahead of Peter and had come first to the monument, nevertheless he did not enter unless Peter had entered first. For although the swiftness of youth had made him run ahead of Peter, humility called him back lest he enter the sepulcher first. 3. To this man also the Lord, the teacher of humility, specially commended on the cross the humble virgin, namely his mother, who reckoned herself a handmaid, not a Lady, to a humble virgin, namely John, who does not name himself an Apostle but a disciple or servant. We also ought to imitate the humility of John; for inward humility of heart pleases the Lord more than outward poverty of things. Hence Jerome writes to Oceanus: "It is more to have laid aside the mind than the dress; we lack arrogance with more difficulty than gold and gems. For when these have been cast away, we sometimes swell with glorious filth and offer saleable poverty to the popular breeze."

III. Thirdly, the Lord, sitting in a large prepared upper room, according to what Mark 14:15 says, taught the lesson of deifying charity. For John 13:34 asserts that, when supper had been made... Jesus said to his disciples: A new commandment I give to you: that you love one another as I have loved you. Or John 15:12: This is my precept, that you love one another as I have loved you. It follows, with some words placed between ¹: These things I command you, that you love one another. Behold how the good Teacher impresses the lesson of charity upon his disciples. This lesson that beloved disciple committed most excellently to his memory. Hence he himself writes to the faithful of the Church in his first canonical epistle, 3:11: Dearest ones, this is the announcement which you have heard from the beginning, that you love one another. Likewise, 4:7: Dearest ones, let us love one another, because charity is from God. Likewise, there he says: If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another in this way ².

Therefore, since Jesus three times commands us to love one another, and John three times invites us to the same thing, it can be evident to every man that we ought to love one another in heart, mouth, and work. In heart, lest we hold anyone in hatred. For everyone who hates his brother is a murderer (1 John 3:15). In mouth, lest we injure anyone with our tongue. Hence the Lord says, Matthew 12:37: From your words you will be justified, and from your words you will be condemned. In work, that we should lay down our souls for our neighbors in necessity, and that from our substance we should relieve the poor. Concerning both John says in 1 John 3:16 and 17: In this we have known the charity of God, because he laid down his soul for us; and we ought to lay down our souls for the brothers. Whoever has the substance of this world, and sees his brother have necessity, and closes his inward parts from him: how does the charity of God remain in him?

IV. Fourthly, the Lord read the lesson of extraordinary gentleness and patience on the gibbet of the cross.

1. For while he was standing fixed to the cross he was saying, as Luke 23:34 says: Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing. On this place Anselm says in the book On Blessed Sufficiency: "What sort of one is this, who in all his pressures not once opened his mouth so that he might utter against those accursed dogs a word either of complaint, or of excuse, or of threat, or of curse, and at the very last poured out upon his enemies a word of blessing such as has not been heard from the age? What more meek, what kinder than this man, my soul, have you seen?"

2. Therefore from this lesson, and from a certain preceding correction of the Lord, John the dear disciple was made most meek. For it is read in Luke 9:54 and following that, on a certain occasion, when Jesus had sent messengers ahead before his face into a certain city of the Samaritans, so that they might prepare lodging for him, the Samaritans did not receive him. When his disciples James and John had seen this, they said: Lord, do you wish that we say that fire should descend from heaven and consume them? And Jesus, turning, rebuked them and said: You do not know of whose spirit you are. The Son of Man did not come to destroy souls, but to save them. Therefore, since John had thus been corrected by the Lord concerning his impatience and zeal of indignation, afterward he was made most patient and most merciful, especially since afterward, standing by the cross, he perceived his Teacher Jesus bearing his pains and injuries in such merciful patience.

Hence it is that when in the time of persecution John had been sent into a vat of boiling oil, the boiling oil was not able to rage against him, because it found nothing of savagery in him. Therefore Tertullian reports that John the Evangelist, sent by Nero into a vat of boiling oil, came out purer and more vigorous than he had entered.

We also, dearest ones, in imitation of Blessed John, ought to be disciples of Jesus Christ. 1. Especially since he himself, for this reason, that we might receive doctrine and discipline from him, first endured for us the grave disciplines of the impious. Hence Isaiah 50:6 says: I gave my body to those striking me, and my cheeks to those plucking them; I did not turn away my face from those rebuking and spitting upon me. Isaiah also says concerning him, 53:5: He was wounded on account of our iniquities; he was bruised on account of our crimes; the discipline of our peace was upon him, and by his bruise we are healed.

2. And so, since Jesus received disciplines from the impious for us, much more worthily ought we receive discipline from the pious Father. Hence the Apostle admonishes us at Hebrews 12:7: Persevere in discipline. God offers himself to you as to sons; for what son is there whom the father does not correct?

Therefore the disciples of Jesus must be disciplined. But that we are disciplined we ought to show through three things.

1. The first is that we should beware of doing evil. Hence Sirach 40:31: A disciplined and instructed man keeps himself. But from what will he keep himself? Certainly lest he do evil.

2. But because there are some who, although they abstain from evils, nevertheless do not sweat much over good works, on account of this it is necessary to know that we should do good works. Hence James 3:13 says: Who is wise and disciplined among you? Let him show from good conversation his work in the meekness of wisdom. Hence also the Lord himself says in the Gospel of John 15:8: In this my Father is glorified, that you bring forth very much fruit and become my disciples. As if he were saying: If you bring forth very much of good works, through this it is clear that you are my disciples.

3. Because there are many who bear this gravely, that while they aim at good works, they are either scourged by the Lord or corrected by men, on account of this it is necessary that we bear neither the correction of the Lord nor that of men with annoyance. Hence it is that Sirach 10:28 says: A prudent and disciplined man will not murmur when corrected. For the Lord scourges in the present age, lest he condemn in the future. Hence the Apostle says, 1 Corinthians 11:32: But when we are judged, we are corrected by the Lord, so that we may not be condemned with this world. Concerning the three things said above it is said in Psalm 33:15: Turn away from evil, behold the first; and do good, behold the second; seek peace, that is, seek inwardly through patience: behold the third ³.

II.

On the second, note that Jesus shows through three things that he loved John more familiarly.

1. The first is because he did not deny him his bosom and breast for reclining. Hence it is said in John 13:21 and following: When Jesus had said to his disciples: Amen, amen I say to you, that one of you will betray me, the disciples were looking at one another, hesitating of whom he was speaking. Therefore one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining in the bosom of Jesus. Therefore Simon Peter nodded to this one and said to him: Who is it, concerning whom he speaks? And so, when that one had reclined upon the breast of Jesus, he says to him: Lord, who is it? Jesus answered: It is he to whom I shall offer the dipped bread.

2. The second, because he specially commended to him his undefiled mother. Hence John 19:26 and 27 says: When Jesus had seen his mother, and the disciple standing, whom he loved, he says to his mother: Woman, behold your son. Then he says to the disciple: Behold your mother. And from that hour the disciple took her into his own, the Gloss says, "mother," that is, he was so obedient to her as if she were his mother.

3. The third is that he revealed to him his most hidden secrets. Hence John himself, in the beginning of his Gospel, flying as it were like a certain eagle from the supernal heavenly hierarchy, made known to us the divinity of the incarnate Word, writing thus: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, etc. ⁴. He also writes the Apocalypse, in which God revealed many things to him concerning the past, present, and future state of the Church militant and triumphant.

III.

On the third, note that John is said to have followed the Lord principally three times: first immediately after the Lord's calling; secondly when Jesus went to the Passion; thirdly after the celebrated Resurrection of Christ.

1. Therefore first he followed the Lord immediately after the first calling, which Matthew 4:18 testifies, speaking thus: Jesus, walking beside the sea of Galilee, called Peter and Andrew. And immediately after a few words he adds, 4:21 and 22: And proceeding thence, he saw two other brothers, James of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, repairing their nets, and he called them. But they, immediately leaving the nets and their father, followed him.

But the fact that John followed Jesus immediately after the first calling can greatly confound our slowness and laziness, we who for so many years, in many ways and by many modes, have been called by the Lord, and yet from day to day, from year to year, delay to follow him. Hence Gregory says: "The disciples had not yet seen Jesus do miracles; they had heard nothing from him concerning the reward of eternal recompense, and nevertheless at one command of God they forgot this which they seemed to possess. How many miracles of his we have seen, by how many scourges we are afflicted, by how many rough threats we are frightened; and nevertheless we despise following him when he calls."

2. Secondly, principally he followed Jesus when he went to the Passion. Hence John himself says in his Gospel, 18:12: The cohort and the tribune and the ministers of the Jews seized Jesus and bound him. It follows, 15: But Simon Peter was following Jesus, and another disciple. But the disciple was known to the High Priest, and he entered with Jesus into the court of the High Priest. It follows after some things, 22: One of the attending ministers gave Jesus a slap, saying: Do you answer the High Priest in this way?

And note that John not only followed Jesus into the court of the High Priest, where he saw him struck with fists, but also followed him even to the gibbet of the cross, where he saw him pierced with nails, given vinegar to drink, and pierced by a lance. John himself also declares this, 19:16 and following, speaking thus: They received Jesus and led him out. And carrying the cross for himself, he went out to that which is called the place of Calvary..., where they crucified him. It follows: Therefore when Jesus had seen his mother and the disciple standing, whom he loved, he says to his mother: Woman, behold your son, etc. It follows: When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said: It is consummated. And with his head inclined he handed over the spirit. It follows: One of the soldiers opened his side with a lance, and immediately blood and water came out. And he who saw has borne testimony, and his testimony is true ⁵.

3. Thirdly he followed Jesus after the manifested Resurrection. Hence the same John says, 21:19 and following, that when Jesus had risen from the dead, and, coming among the disciples, had given them bread and fish, and they had breakfasted, he says to Peter: Follow me. And then Peter, having turned, also saw that disciple, whom Jesus loved, following.

We also, dearest ones, in imitation of this renowned disciple, not only