Monday December 27

 

 

JOHN, Evangelist, Feast

        

Introduction

Close to our Lord, obsessed by love. This may well be the marks of John the Evangelist. He had experienced in his person what it means to be loved by Jesus and to love in return. And Jesus was the Lord, God’s Son! In later life he was driven by this love, as his gospel and his first letter reveal to us. He was the man who preached love; the words he used, the urgency and insistence with which he spoke cannot come but from a man who lived this love deeply and who felt that this should be the mark too of the Christian communities.

 

Opening Prayer

Lord God, you are love itself.
We know that you loved us first
before we could ever love you.
Let this unforgettable experience
of your “beloved apostle” John
become also our deep and lasting experience.
May the love you have shown us
in your Son Jesus Christ
move us to love you very deeply in return
and overflow on all those we meet in life.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord.

 

Reading 1: 1 JN 1:1-4

Beloved:
What was from the beginning,
what we have heard,
what we have seen with our eyes,
what we looked upon
and touched with our hands
concerns the Word of life —
for the life was made visible;
we have seen it and testify to it
and proclaim to you the eternal life
that was with the Father and was made visible to us— 
what we have seen and heard
we proclaim now to you,
so that you too may have fellowship with us;
for our fellowship is with the Father
and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
We are writing this so that our joy may be complete.

 

Responsorial Psalm: PS 97:1-2, 5-6, 11-12

(12) Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
The LORD is king; let the earth rejoice;
let the many isles be glad.
Clouds and darkness are around him,
justice and judgment are the foundation of his throne.
R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
The mountains melt like wax before the LORD,
before the LORD of all the earth.
The heavens proclaim his justice,
and all peoples see his glory.
R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
Light dawns for the just;
and gladness, for the upright of heart.
Be glad in the LORD, you just,
and give thanks to his holy name.
R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just!

 

Alleluia: ‘Te Deum’

Alleluia, alleluia.
We praise you, O God,
we acclaim you as Lord;
the glorious company of Apostles praise you.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

 

Gospel: JN 20:1A AND 2-8

On the first day of the week,
Mary Magdalene ran and went to Simon Peter
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
“They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we do not know where they put him.”
So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.
They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter
and arrived at the tomb first;
he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.
When Simon Peter arrived after him,
he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,
and the cloth that had covered his head,
not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first,
and he saw and believed.

 

Intercessions

–       Lord Jesus, make us understand and put into practice that the core of the gospel is love for you and for one another, we pray:

–       Lord Jesus, may our words and actions bear witness that we believe and rejoice in you as our risen Lord, we pray:

–       Lord Jesus, make us happy people, who feel secure because we know that we live in your presence, we pray:

 

Prayer over the Gifts

Father,
bread and wine are the signs
in which your Son gives himself to us today.
May these gifts be at the same time
the signs in which we place ourselves
at your disposal
and of the concrete you
who are our neighbors far and near,
our brothers and sisters whom you love
and whom we love
in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

Prayer after Communion

Our living and loving God,
who can nourish our love better
than he who spoke of it to us,
your Son Jesus Christ?
Like him, and strengthened by his body and blood,
may we respond to the warmth of your love
by caring for our brothers and sisters,
even at the expense of ourselves.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord.

 

Blessing

John is the apostle who insists that we should love one another as Jesus loves us. Jesus asks us to live in him as he lives in us. May we remain and grow in this love, with the blessing of almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

Commentary

How privileged people feel to have a glimpse of the Pope, a living Saint, or a charismatic world leader! How eagerly people reach out to touch them or to have a photograph taken with them! If this is how we feel about earthly leaders, how would we feel about the privilege to see, hear, touch, and live with the Word who is Life! St. John, whose memory we keep today, writes about how privileged he and the other apostles were to have heard, seen, touched, and lived with Christ, the Word of God. He shares his experience of God with us in order to complete his joy, just as Jesus shared with the apostles his experience of the Father for his joy to be in them and their joy to be complete (Jn 15:11).

         How privileged must we feel, for we are able to see, touch, and feed on the Lord in the Eucharist! How blessed are we to see and serve him in every human being around us!