A Jesuit Catholic University
in Omaha, Nebraska, since 1878

[697] 1 John 1:1-4 Ps 97:1-2, 5-6, 11-12 John 20:1a, 2-8

Weekly Guide for Daily Prayer The Daily Reflections

John and I are very similar, I think.  I must admit that I almost laughed out loud when I first read today’s Gospel because John is many things, but humble is not one of them.  He is racing Peter to the Lord’s tomb, and multiple times, John reminds us that he ran faster than Peter.  In addition, John always refers to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”  I think I can relate quite well to the whole issue of pride that John faces, but he can teach us something much more than how not to be humble.

Tradition tells us that John was the youngest of Jesus’s disciples, and in his youth, I find hope.  There are times in my life when I feel distraught because it seems like few, if any, of my peers have the same desire for holiness that I have.   Society teaches that young people are naturally wild, rebellious, and self-consumed.  That has always bothered me because that is not who I am.  When I look at John, I realize that, in him, there is something more, a spirit of life that is not to be found in any of the other disciples.

John is alive.  He must have been a very vibrant character, and probably found incredible joy in just living life to the fullest.  He was trained to be a fisherman, but one day, a guy showed up and said, “Come, follow me,” and John did!  How incredibly rash and even foolish of him to do so!  Why would he leave his livelihood to follow a complete stranger to an unknown destination?

Because John had a spirit for adventure, and he had a yearning to find meaning in life.  I think the reason that young people seem so rebellious today is because they are searching.  We are created with an emptiness in our hearts that longs for something greater than ourselves.  We yearn to do something great with our lives.  All young people have that deep, inner desire to do something remarkable and to be someone remarkable.  The problem is that many young people do not know where to look.  They ask questions like, “What was I created for?  What great thing can I accomplish?  What must I do to find meaning?”  But the world simply responds, “There is no sure path for you.”  As a result, young men and women fall away to drugs, alcohol, and immorality because they lose hope in something more.  They forget the words of John Paul II, who said, “It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society.”

John, too, had this yearning for something more.  He was probably just as unsettled about his life as young people are today about their lives.  But he recognized that Jesus was inviting him on the greatest adventure there is.  John heard Jesus call his name and say, “Come, follow me.”  John followed Jesus to the cross, and even though the journey was long and difficult, John found the great peace and joy that Christ brought in His victory over sin and death.

St. John, help us to hear Christ’s call to us and to respond joyfully and generously with our whole selves so that we, too, might do the greatest good in our own lives, to answer Jesus’s call to follow Him.