The Beloved

Welcome to the feast day of St. John, Apostle, Evangelist, Divine, Blessed Disciple, Beloved, Theologian. Crown him with many crowns! Today we celebrate his life, which was a long one. He was the only one of the Twelve to stand at the foot of the Cross with the Most Holy Mother of God and the only one not to be martyred. And if his life were preserved until old age, we today realize that he had much to do — to prepare all of us for the life we call Holy Orthodoxy. In the frailty of old age, he was transported from village to village that children might touch the head that lay on Jesus' breast.

Last week we described his Gospel as leading through the highest summits of human history. The early Church referred to the Beloved Disciple as "the eagle," whose magnificent wings rode the thermals of Heaven's heights. For St. John has set before us what we might call the "the Theosis Gospel," our primary guide to achieving unity with God and becoming "the Beloved," as he was called.

If theosis is the meaning, purpose, and highest aim of a human life, then St. John's writings describe this consummation not only for each person, but for the entire lifeworld, depicted in the Book of Revelation. Setting out an allegory of the First Temple, where the High Priest became united with God in a splendid union of Divine Power, St. John extrapolates from personal transformation to nothing less than the theosis of the world — the assumption of earth into the Kingdom of God.

If Jesus has announced the apotheosis of the Patriarchs and a "Kingdom of Heaven religion," John announces an apotheosis of the Hebrew Scriptures, composing a new Torah having a new Genesis ("In the beginning was the Word ....") and a new Exodus depicting not merely a journey through wilderness into a Promised Land, but a transformation of heart and soul apart from the world uniting with the very Bosom of God. His Epistles proceed from a Community whose Divine leadership included the Mother of God and whose members are called the children of God (Jn 1:12, 11:52; 1Jn 2:28, 3:1, 3:2, 3:10, 5:2).

In St. John's writings alone we are brought boldly into the Presence of God, Who issues the Living Breath which utters His own Name:

That is, Jesus the Logos brings about the Kingdom before our very eyes, for Creation (Jn 1:1ff) itself and Holy Church (Jn 20:21) arise from the Living Breath uttering the Name of God. Indeed, these are among the final words of His Divine Gospel:

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St. Paul has called the Holy Scriptures the "oracles of God" (Rom 3:2). That is, the Scriptures are not merely words describing places, people, and ideas. They are themselves palpably holy — the living vibrations of Heaven's truth spoken in our broken world. The Gospels have been called "the love letters of God." Surely, their fragrance is redolent of the fields and gardens of Heaven. Their terseness joined to their incommensurable content make for literature (if we can use that impoverished term) which is unmatched by any writings on earth. Their heights ascend ever before our reach leading us into the Kingdom itself.

Instances of the New Testament during the early centuries had no chapters or verses. There was no punctuation nor even spaces. Whether written on papyrus or parchment, this sacred code appeared to the world as an unrelieved sequence of shimmering capital letters in Greek. Within this spiritual DNA of God's own Person, condescending to the narrow capacities of humanity, we discover nothing less than the Kingdom of Heaven.

Yes, this code conveys memorable characters and scenes, which might be rendered into other languages. But hidden within is something more, something much more. Its disposition on the page, the arrangement of its words, the affinities among its letters all combine to invite us into a mystery of ascent.

Consider the following sequence, surely among the holiest linguistic elements ever composed (I have inserted spaces following canonical tradition):

Half these words are function words having only grammatical meaning. Only three words here bear lexical meaning: the Holy Name of Jesus appearing twice (beginning "IH," we would say) placed on either side of another word: AGAPE, the word which Jesus associates with Divine union, which we understand to be the property and force shared amongst the Persons of the Holy Trinity, which we also call Grace. It is the highest word-and-meaning to be found on earth, celebrated even by the Greek and the Roman pagans to the highest heights: the highest good and the greatest virtue. Most important, it is the element in which two excellent souls might cohere into a unity, elevating each to his or her most noble state.

In this sequence of three, we enter into a bottomless pool of uncreated Divine energy: the Logos encircling the only Divine property to be found on earth.

Now let us look now at the rest of the sentence. All the letters make up function words .... except for two others:

The other "meaning word" in this sequence is an incommensurable, a most holy word. This holy word appears very rarely in the New Testament and only spoken by Jesus. The word is κόλπος / kólpos, tranlated as bosom — spoken once to describe the Son's unity with God the Father (Jn 1:18), once to name the unity of Paradise, the Bosom of Abraham (Lu 16:22-23), and once to describe the unity of love revealed in the Proverbs of Heaven (also called "the Beatitudes"):

How extraordinary! In this last verse, Jesus grants us a glimpse of agape-love coming to reside within the human breast: abundant, compacted within, dispersed throughout, and overbrimming like the cup of blessing from Psalm 23. And where is this cup of holy blessing? It is the bosom.

This bosom of grace, excelling all others, is the place of Divine rest and unity and peace on to which the Mathetes, forever after will be called "the Beloved Disciple," has come to rest. He is immersed in this bottomless pool. He experiences the longed for unity with God, the deification, for which every life is intended, to which every soul is bound, every soul .... if that be our will.

What has happened here is the high point of St. John's Gospel at least in the personal dimension. Underlining this truth, St. John adds one last chapter to his Gospel to be a counter-example, that we not fail to understand what has happened here: as I say, the high point in the highest Gospel in the personal dimension.

If the Beloved Disciple has been rock solid, his elder co-Disciple, Peter, has dithered. We find an icon of this on the Day of Resurrection, in which John appears instantly and with zeal at the entrance of the tomb, but he must wait for Peter, who comes, but does not come immediately (Jn 20:3-6). Indeed, right up until Peter's crucifixion in Rome, tradition (we think of the "Quo vadis" story) depicts him as "the one who ran" .... the wrong way. Truly, he is "the son of Jonah," who sailed to the opposite end of the earth from God's command. And what is Simon-Peter's surname? It is "Son of Jonah," literally. All this St. John sets out in Peter's "final examination" before the Risen Christ.

Now, we have gone over this several times in past reflections. This morning, it is enough to say that the interview turns on two words: agape and philia. Three times Jesus asks if Peter (notably He addresses him as "Son of Jonah") will accept the noble elevation, the noble relationship of self-sacrificing love, agape. And three times Simon-Peter declines, saying instead that he will be a faithful Disciple. And he offers Jesus the lesser commitment of philia. "You will be a faithful shepherd?" Jesus retorts by implication. "Then, be one! Feed my sheep! Feed my lambs! Feed my sheep!"

Jesus then adds a coda (please forgive my translation.) "When you were young, you pulled up your own pants and went wheresoever you wished. But when you grow old, another will have to change your diapers, and you will be brought to the place where you do not wish to go." St. John comments,

looking ahead to Peter's next encounter with the Risen Christ outside of Rome, where Jesus must cajole him back to the flock he has just abandoned.

Now, Peter is manifestly humiliated before the others, so he points his finger at the Beloved Disciple and demands, "What about him?!" Jesus replies,

That is, "'Do your job!' 'Mind your business!'"

This is where St. John leaves us in his Gospel. If we have not understood the primary purpose of his book as we arrive to its final verses, St. John lays out this obvious and bluntly stated example and counter-example and then signs it as if it were an affidavit:

"Follow me!" Jesus commands. This is not an embossed invitation. This is no brochure advertising a cruise. This is a Divine command. As St. John the Theologian asserts, should we fail to follow Him, should we stumble and dither, then we will be taken to the place where we do not wish to go in the years of our failing powers. Nonetheless, he places before us the positive case first. When we do choose to follow Him, then we shall find awaiting us the Bosom of Abraham, the Bosom of unity with God the Father, and the Bosom of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who accepts us and approves us and allows that we might recline upon His Most Gracious Breast. Blessed. Beloved. And forever united to God.

There are many other things that Jesus did, St. John says in closing. But none, we surmise, are more important than these. The Son of God has announced the restoration of the Kingdom of Heaven religion. And the Beloved Disciple concludes by showing us the way into this marvelous world.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.