Homily: December 27, 2023, Feast of Saint John, Apostle and evangelist (He saw and believed)

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 “Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed.”

This phrase struck me very deeply, ‘he saw and believed’.

How could John the Apostle believe, simply by what he saw?

Even Peter, who saw the same scene, didn’t fully believe. Later when Jesus appeared to them again at the shore of Tiberias, John was the one who told Peter, “It is the Lord.”

The answer can be found in the beautiful poem by St. Paul, in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, “(Love) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Yes, Love believes all things. 

John believes because he loves. In his heart, his beloved master will never die and so seeing the empty tomb was enough for him to believe that the Lord whom he loves so much is alive.

Very aptly, St. John’s Gospel is also called the Book of Love. His writings focus on love. His theology is love. The answer to everything we need to believe in, is in Chapter 3 verse 16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”.

God loved, and He did the impossible. And if we also love, we will believe the impossible which God did.

Love believes all things. With love, our eyes will be opened to see beyond the visible, our hearts will believe beyond the believable. We will see miracles, we will believe the impossible.

Love connects, love empowers, love is life, love will never die. God loves us, and thus He is always reaching out to us. And when we separate ourselves from God, our soul will suffer and die.

He saw and believed.

But the Lord says, “Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed.”

We are blessed because we have the Gospel of St. John. We believe because John saw and believed.

Amen.


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