An overview of the life of the Beloved Disciple. Who was St. John? The son of Zebedee, the brother of James the Greater, the caretaker of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the theologian and priest and prophet, the Evangelist.
Handout is below the audio recording.
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Catholic Commentary on
the Gospel of St John
Following the great
saints and Catholic theologians
Session 2 – Who was St.
John the Evangelist?
Who was St. John? He is the brother of James
the Greater. He is also the son Zebedee and Salome, making him the nephew of
St. James the Less and Jude Thaddeus, and the grandson of St. Cleophas
(Alphaeus). This makes him to be a distant relative of Jesus, since he is the son
of the Lord’s cousin Salome. All this
is the general consensus of the Fathers and great saints.
St. John suffered an
interior martyrdom greater than all the other Apostles:
Fr.
Cornelius a’ Lapide writes of the “martyrdom” of St. John – (cf. Mark 10:35-40,
especially verses 38-39, “And Jesus said to them: You know not what you ask.
Can you drink of the chalice that I drink of: or be baptized with the baptism
wherewith I am baptized? But they said to him: We can. And Jesus saith to them:
You shall indeed drink of the chalice that I drink of: and with the baptism
wherewith I am baptized, you shall be baptized.”)
“S.
John also drank of this cup when he was plunged by Domitian, at Rome, before
the Latin Gate, into a cauldron of boiling oil, and came forth renewed in
strength; so that by a new miracle he was a martyr by living rather by dying.
“Again,
not only Prochorus, S. John’s disciple, in his Life of S. John (the truth of
which is rightly suspected by Baronius), but also S. Isidore declares that S.
John really drank the cup of poison, but that he also drank it without harm;
whence also he is generally represented in pictures holding a cup. And, lastly,
we may say that the whole life of S. John was a continual martyrdom, for he
lived a very long time after all the Apostles, to the year of our Lord 101; and
this long absence from Christ, his beloved—after Whom he was continually
longing—was a lengthened martyrdom to him, as it was also to the Blessed
Virgin, to whom he had been given as a son by Christ on the Cross.
“Again,
S. John underwent a special martyrdom while he stood with the Blessed Virgin by
the Cross on Mount Calvary, and beheld Christ—his Life, Whom he loved more than
his own life—suffering the bitter pains of the Cross for three hours.”
Again, Fr. Cornelius a
Lapide writes of the virtues of St. John:
“S.
John alone was counted worthy to win the laurels of all saints. For he is in
very deed a theologian, or rather the prince of theologians. The same is an
apostle, a prophet and an evangelist. The same is a priest, a bishop, a high
priest, a virgin, and a martyr. That S. John always remained a virgin is
asserted by all the ancient writers, expressly by Tertullian (Lib. de monogam.)
and S. Jerome (Lib. 1 contra. Jovin.). To him therefore as a virgin Christ from
His cross commended His Virgin Mother. For “blessed are the clean in heart, for
they shall see God,” as the Truth Itself declares.
“The
Only Begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, made known to this His
most chaste and beloved friend, who reclined upon His breast, the hidden things
and sacraments of the Divinity, which had been kept-secret from the foundation
of the world. John hath declared the same to us, as a son of thunder,
thundering and lightening the whole world with the Deity of the Word. As with a
flaming thunderbolt “he hath given shine to the world;” and with the fire of
love he hath inflamed it. Let that speech of Christ, His longest and His last,
bear witness, which He made after supper (S. John xiii. &c.), which breathes
of nothing but the ardour of Divine love.”
Outline of the Life of St John:
1. During the life of Christ
a. Disciple
of St. John the Baptist
b. Follows
the Lord together with St Andrew
c. After a
year and an half, called to total discipleship with Jesus (from the Sea)
d. Remains
closest to Jesus through his whole ministry.
e. Is seen
active with Peter after Pentecost, and is a pillar of the early Church.
2. Later years.
a. St John
cared for Mary in Ephesus for 15 years after the Ascension.
b. St. John
suffered much persecution, and attempts on his life (the poisoned chalice)
c. He
writes the three Letters.
d. Domitian
attempts to kill him in boiling oil at the Latin Gate in Rome (about AD 95)
e. St. John
is banished to Patmos where he writes the Book of Revelations
f.
Returning to Ephesus, he writes the Gospel about AD 100, and dies shortly
after.
