So as not to weaken the personal Encounter

(Jn 20:2-8)

"Now the two of them ran together, and the other disciple ran ahead sooner than Peter and came first to the tomb, and when he bent down he saw the linen cloths folded apart; yet he did not go in" (Jn 20:4-5).

In the fourth Gospel, the beloved disciple is an individual and ecclesial figure: of each of us, at the foot of the Cross together with the Mother - believing, sensitive and faithful Israel.

In addition, the beloved disciple himself is a broader, collective icon: of the new community that is born around Jesus.

It is precisely the Church that is born; not on the basis of a planned succession, but through full and spontaneous adhesion, which is unbelievable.

At the end of the first century, the Gospel of John acquires its fourth-fifth and final draft, in a climate of growing conflict between the ancient institution [reduced by now to a synagogue, without a Temple] and the new, adoring assembly of the sons.

Other tensions arise between the Johannine school - frankly prophetic - and the apostolic one, which we would define as Petrine charism, i.e. governmental.  A more diplomatic reality, and attenuated in its cues [with frictions evident throughout the writing of John, as well as in the text we are commenting on].

In Asia Minor, the Lord's friends, Hellenists who were less bound by custom, intended to contrast the uncertain and compromising attitude of the Judaizers.

Many of the believers in the Johannine churches were thinking of abandoning the synagogue and the First Testament, which were holding them back.

Alternatively, they wished to embrace the New exclusively, through personal faith in the living Christ, without uncertainty.

The Fourth Gospel attempts to balance the extremist positions.

"Son" and Mother - that is, the people of the Old Covenant [in Hebrew "Israèl" is feminine] - must remain united (Jn 19:26-27).

In short, faith and works of law go hand in hand.

Faith is a progressive relationship that is ignited in a quest filled with tension and passion ["running"].

It conveys progressive perceptions, which give access to a new world ["enter"], where we 'see' things we do not know.

This was already in part the dismayed reaction of Mary Magdalene, who in Jn. 1 runs alone to the tomb - not accompanied by other "women" as the synoptics narrate.

A dismay that, however, leads to the Announcement: the tomb (the condition of the Sheôl, a ravine of darkness) was no longer in the condition in which it had been left after Christ's burial.

And indeed, that sheet "wrapped [carefully] apart" says that it will never need any shroud. Death has no more power over Him.

Thus, although the young man is faster than the veteran and arrives first to sight the signs of truth and the new world, he gives way.

Like a prophet who grasps all things in advance, the outspoken disciple and the genuine community wait for the lagging ones to come to the same experience, to the identical acumen of things; to believe in the mysterious process that brings gain in loss and life from death.

The eye of the lover perceives immediately; it has the acute, intimate gaze that grasps and makes the Newness of the Risen One its own.

Before mere admirers, who await results and anticipate favours before getting involved, immediately the empathetic and true brother grasps Life amidst signs of death.

As if by the relationship of Faith that animates us, in the attention of events, we are already introduced into a reality that communicates 'new senses'. And the distinguishing-hearing of the heart.

A Listening that sharpens the eye - projecting the Announcement.

A new People thus arises, which 'sees within', which perceives the Infinite appearing in finiteness, and complete life revealing itself in the fragility of the (even obscure) event.

Says the Tao Tê Ching [LII]: "He who increases his endeavours, for all his life has no escape. Enlightenment is to see the small; strength is to stick to softness'.

Master Ho-shang Kung comments: 'Only the clear understanding of small things appears as enlightenment. He who sticks to weakness becomes great and strong every day".

Master Wang Pi: "The meritorious work of a ruler does not lie in great things: seeing great things is not enlightenment; seeing small things is enlightenment. Sticking to strength is not strength'.

For the ocean liner of the institutional and governing Church, the motorboat of the enthusiast is impregnable; at best, it tails it. Or at least, it should not lose sight of it.

In his sensitivity, the Beloved Disciple - springing from the Heart of the Pierced One and carrying the Tradition to the summit as well - 'senses' the living Lord well before the one being commemorated.

He is enraptured by it, and in his experience 'realises' instantly the power of Life over all bindings.

Divine, illuminating condition, unfolded in history. 

But a great deal of patience will have to be exercised, so that amidst a thousand delays and backtracks that make the children stagnate, at least here and there we do not lose the charisma of the outriders and the personal encounter.

Those who play in advance and trigger the involvement of the heart to a new level, map out the present and the future for the whole field of those responsible who - uncertain or willingly - still linger.

Perhaps not a few people are still surprised by the 'empty tomb': that is, a Risen Jesus only 'personal', lived in love, in the free normal, in the self-giving that overcomes death. But without any 'mausoleum'.

To internalise and live the message:

How do you live the relationship between Faith and Church life?

The silent ones know the mysterious exchange of hearts

John, son of Zebedee

Dear brothers and sisters

we dedicate today's meeting to the memory of another very important member of the apostolic college: John, son of Zebedee and brother of James. His name, typically Jewish, means 'the Lord has done grace'. He was tidying up his nets on the shore of Lake Tiberijah, when Jesus called him together with his brother (cf. Mt 4:21; Mk 1:19). John is always part of the small group that Jesus takes with him on certain occasions. He is with Peter and James when Jesus, in Capernaum, enters Peter's house to heal his mother-in-law (cf. Mk 1:29); with the other two he follows the Master to the house of the archisynagogue Jairus, whose daughter will be called back to life (cf. Mk 5:37); he follows him when he goes up the mountain to be transfigured (cf. Mk 9:2); He is beside him on the Mount of Olives when before the grandeur of the Temple of Jerusalem he pronounces the discourse on the end of the city and the world (cf. Mk 13:3); and, finally, he is close to him when in the Garden of Gethsemane he withdraws to pray to the Father before the Passion (cf. Mk 14:33). Shortly before Easter, when Jesus chooses two disciples to send them to prepare the room for the Supper, he entrusts him and Peter with this task (cf. Lk 22:8).

His prominent position in the group of the Twelve makes the initiative taken one day by his mother somewhat understandable: she approached Jesus to ask him that his two sons, John precisely and James, could sit one at his right and one at his left in the Kingdom (cf. Mt 20:20-21). As we know, Jesus responded by asking a question in turn: he asked whether they were willing to drink the cup that he himself was about to drink (cf. Mt 20:22). The intention behind those words was to open the eyes of the two disciples, to introduce them to the knowledge of the mystery of his person and to foreshadow to them the future call to be his witnesses until the supreme test of blood. Shortly afterwards, Jesus made it clear that he had not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for the multitude (cf. Mt 20:28). In the days following the resurrection, we find "the sons of Zebedee" engaged with Peter and some other disciples in an unfruitful night, which is followed by the intervention of the Risen One by the miraculous catch of fish: it will be "the disciple whom Jesus loved" who first recognises "the Lord" and points him out to Peter (cf. Jn 21:1-13).

Within the Church of Jerusalem, John occupied a prominent place in the leadership of the first grouping of Christians. Paul in fact counts him among those he calls the "pillars" of that community (cf. Gal 2:9). In fact, Luke in Acts presents him together with Peter as they go to pray in the Temple (cf. Acts 3,1-4.11) or appear before the Sanhedrin to testify their faith in Jesus Christ (cf. Acts 4,13.19). Together with Peter he is sent by the Church in Jerusalem to confirm those in Samaria who have accepted the Gospel, praying on them to receive the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 8:14-15). In particular, one must remember what he says, together with Peter, before the Sanhedrin that is trying them: "We cannot keep silent about what we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:20). It is precisely this frankness in confessing one's faith that remains an example and an admonition for all of us to always be ready to decisively declare our unwavering adherence to Christ, putting faith before any calculation or human interest.

According to tradition, John is "the beloved disciple", who in the Fourth Gospel rests his head on the Master's breast during the Last Supper (cf. Jn 13:21), stands at the foot of the Cross together with the Mother of Jesus (cf. Jn 19:25), and finally witnesses both the Empty Tomb and the Risen One's own presence (cf. Jn 20:2; 21:7). We know that this identification is debated by scholars today, some of whom see in him simply the prototype of the disciple of Jesus. Leaving it to the exegetes to settle the question, we are content here to gather an important lesson for our lives: the Lord desires to make of each of us a disciple who lives a personal friendship with Him. To achieve this, it is not enough to follow Him and listen to Him outwardly; one must also live with Him and like Him. This is only possible in the context of a relationship of great familiarity, pervaded by the warmth of total trust. This is what happens between friends; that is why Jesus said one day: 'No one has greater love than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends ... I no longer call you servants, because the servant does not know what his master does; but I have called you friends, because everything I have heard from the Father I have made known to you" (Jn 15:13, 15).

In the apocryphal Acts of John, the Apostle is presented not as the founder of Churches, nor as the leader of already established communities, but in continuous itinerancy as the communicator of the faith in the encounter with "souls capable of hoping and being saved" (18:10; 23:8). Everything is moved by the paradoxical intention to make the invisible visible. And indeed by the Eastern Church he is simply called "the Theologian", that is, the one who is able to speak in accessible terms of divine things, revealing an arcane access to God through adherence to Jesus.

The cult of John the Apostle was established from the city of Ephesus, where, according to an ancient tradition, he would have worked for a long time, finally dying there at an extraordinarily advanced age, under the emperor Trajan. In Ephesus the emperor Justinian, in the 6th century, had a great basilica built in his honour, of which impressive ruins still remain. He enjoyed and still enjoys great veneration in the East. In Byzantine iconography he is often depicted very old - according to tradition he died under the Emperor Trajan - and in the act of intense contemplation, almost in the attitude of one who invites to silence.

Indeed, without adequate recollection it is not possible to approach the supreme mystery of God and his revelation. This explains why, years ago, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Athenagoras, the one whom Pope Paul VI embraced in a memorable meeting, said: "John is at the origin of our highest spirituality. Like him, the 'silent ones' know that mysterious exchange of hearts, they invoke the presence of John and their hearts are set on fire' (O. Clément, Dialogues with Athenagoras, Turin 1972, p. 159). May the Lord help us to put ourselves in the school of John to learn the great lesson of love so that we may feel loved by Christ "to the end" (Jn 13:1) and spend our lives for Him.

[Pope Benedict, General Audience 5 July 2006].