December 27 John the Apostle

John,

Good morning
I love you
Merry Christmas
Happy Birthday

That’s a mouthful.

I hope your Christmas day was full of good tidings and cheer – lots of dad feeloughts, too. Keep the twelve days of Christmas in your heart over the holidays, across the new year demarcation, and through the Epiphany. [Even the Greensboro paper explained how it was the Epiphany we celebrated long before “Christ’s Mass” day got to be a feast; and both of those stand behind Easter and Pentecost in Church holy days.] May the spirit of the Christ child infuse you daily.

And, yes, birthday. Baptism day, 1987. We didn’t plan your baptism day for the same day as John’s feast. It was the day we could put together St. Elizabeth of Hungry church and Kevin O’Connell, SJ, and a family trip to the City. It was a coming together of great joy for our tiny family within our Nolan clan. [Only your godmother on your mother’s side attended, and she missed the ceremony.]

We named you before your conception. A boy would be John Kenneth, after our fathers, your grandfathers. I’m sorry you didn’t get to know John Ed. And, I have believed that if he were to have lived past 1995, it would have been less likely that your mother would have divorced your father – but he didn’t and she did. I am sorry for that, too. I’ve asked JT to fill you in on your grandfather – the experience of the man was very different by the men in the family than by the women. Assuming that you’re a man, you’ll want to drain JT of all his memories about your grandfather.

John the Apostle and John the Baptist became your patrons in kindergarten. Sr. Luke raised them up for you at this season of their special feasts. She also explained to you that your real name was John, not Jack. [I wish I hadn’t urealed your Jack at home, regardless of what Sister said or you preferred at the moment. A bad precedent was set. Regardless, Jack or John, John the Apostle is your patron saint. Still and forever. I’ve leaving all of the Catholic on line and the on online Catholic encyclopedia entries in the letter to make it easier for you to renew your acquaintance….]



John the Evangelist/Apostle
December 27


Maybe we should have taken a hint from the gospels and named Thommy ‘James’. It’s always James and John in the gospel. I half considered James for Thommy but that was too close to the heart of my brother James Anthony.

John, the son of Zebedee and Salome, and the brother of James. Here we are two thousand years later and the usual starting point of presenting John is to give you his parents. Usually, “the sons of Zebedee”. You, too, are forever, the son of William and Johannah. You and Thommy are the sons of William….

Like John and James, you and Thommy are the world’s best brothers – and that’s not only genetic and not by accident. Don’t ever do anything but enhance that tie with Thom.

How does Jesus enter John’s life? Your life? John, a disciple of the Baptist, thus primed to recognize and respond to the Messiah when he arrived, was doing his usual thing – wrapping us a day’s fishing – when Jesus came along. What put the two of them together? Chance? God’s plan? Jesus’ choice? You were born into an Irish Catholic family and brought by your parents to the baptismal font that brought your father and uncle sacramentally into the church, affirming the familial presentation that was made with your conception.

John, the one, he claimed, whom Jesus loved the most, had several unique experiences with our Lord. Fr. Scherer says that Jesus loves him best. He knows that to be true because Jesus loves everyone best. Amen to that. Jesus loves you best. I love you best, too. [I also love Thommy best.] What is the obligation of one so infinitely loved? How do you respond to the ones who love you? Love you no matter what. Love you forever.

John was with Peter and James for the raising of Jairus’s daughter; at the Transfiguration; praying [dozing] with Jesus in Gethsemane. It was John who went with Peter to make preparation for the last supper. We generally it was John who hung with Peter as they followed Christ after the arrest into the palace of the high priest.

John, alone of the Apostles, remained at the foot of the Cross on Calvary, with Mary. Talk about ‘stand by your man’!

John, at Jesus’ dying request, too Mary into his care.

After the resurrection, John and Peter were the first disciples to rush to the grave.

John was the first Apostle to believe that Jesus had truly risen (John 20:2-10).

With your patron, where do you stand? How do you display your faith? Your loyalty? Your response to being so loved?

After Pentecost, John was a lead player with Peter in founding and guiding our Church. With whom do you stand in the sustaining of our Church. How do you contribute to the health and growth of the Body of Christ? John’s life offers you guidance.

In Acts. John was with Peter at the healing of the lame man in the temple. John was also thrown into prison with Peter because of our faith, our religion, our Church. The prison of freedom of faith. How imprisoned by non- and anti-Catholics do you feel? John went with Peter to solidify the faith of the newly converted in Samaria. By exhibiting and proclaiming their experiences in faith, the witness to the faith infused in baptism and sealed with the fire of the Holy Spirit (for them that was Jerusalem; for you, it was Nashville).

John spread the seed of faith throughout Palestine for about a dozen years, until the persecution of Herod Agrippa. John went, apparently, first to Asia Minor. He was at the Apostolic Council in 51 Anno Domini. By tradition, we have John in Ephesus, Asia Minor. The Roman historian Tertullian has John thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil at the Porta Latina – without harm! John returned to Ephesus where he died, the only Apostle not martyred, about 100 A.D.

John’s constant mantra in the last years of his very long life: “little children, love one another.” Something, I suggest, you might try on yourself each morning in the mirror.

Not so little son, love ….

I love you
Dad


C: Thommy