Homily One on the Repose of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian
By Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov
(Delivered in 1960)
By Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov
(Delivered in 1960)
Dear brothers and sisters, today the Holy Orthodox Church brightly celebrates the day of the departure to the Lord of one of the first Apostles, one of the beloved disciples of Christ, Saint John the Theologian.
Saint John, the son of the Galilean fisherman Zebedee and Salome, was a disciple of John the Baptist before his conversion to Christ. After his conversion to Christ, Saint John never again departed from the Lord, because he loved Him with his pure heart more than anything else in the world. During the earthly life of the Savior, John, among His three closest disciples, was vouchsafed to be a witness to the manifestation of Divine glory on Mount Tabor, and was present at the resurrection of Jairus' daughter; at the Secret Supper, the Lord revealed to him His betrayer, Judas.
Imbued with love for his Lord and Heavenly Teacher, John alone of all the disciples stood at the Cross during the Lord's sufferings, and to him, as a pure virgin, the Lord entrusted from the Cross in His dying moments the care of His Most-Pure Mother. Before the Dormition of the Mother of God, the Apostle lived in Jerusalem, and after Her Dormition in the city of Ephesus, where he preached the gospel of Christ. For this preaching he was first exiled to Rome, where he was subjected to torture. When the poison and boiling oil did not harm him, the emperor Domitian exiled him to the island of Patmos, where he wrote the Apocalypse, in which the future fate of the Christian Church and the whole world is set forth.
Under the good successor of Domitian, Nerva, Saint John was released and again returned to Ephesus, where he died peacefully, almost alone of all the Apostles. In addition to the Apocalypse, he wrote the Gospel and three General Epistles. The Apostle John the Theologian is usually called the Apostle of Love, because he mainly preached mutual love for each other. Saint John, himself imbued with a deep love for the Christians who lived with him and for all Christians in general, very much desired that peace and love would spread among them, and not enmity and hatred. He attached the highest importance to the commandment of love and believed that its fulfillment alone is sufficient for salvation.
Tradition says that when he was very old and could not go to different countries preaching the gospel, he constantly repeated to those who came to him: "Children, love one another!" When he was asked why he repeated these words so often, he answered: "Whoever fulfills the commandment of love will fulfill all the commandments." And in his epistles to Christians, which have come down to us, he often repeated: "Let us love God, because He first loved us. Whoever does not love has not known God, because God is love. Whoever loves God must also love his neighbor, because whoever does not love his brother shows that he does not love God either. As Christ laid down His life for us, so we must lay down our lives for our brethren: he who loves his brother walks in the light, and he who hates walks in darkness" (cf. 1 John 3:16; 4:4-21, etc.). Likewise, in the Gospel he pays attention mainly to those incidents from the life of the Savior in which the Lord's love for people was primarily expressed and which arouse love for Him.
What are the reasons that motivate us to love one another? First of all, by nature we are brethren, because we all descended from one forefather, Adam, and in Heaven we have a common Father, God. This means that we all make up one great family and therefore must love each other as blood relatives. Moreover, as Christians, being one human family, we are all in an even closer relationship with each other, because, according to the teaching of the Apostle Paul, we constitute one spiritual body, of which Christ is the Head (Romans 12:5; Ephesians 1:23; 4:15-16). "And in what relation are the members to each other in the natural body? Are they at war with each other? For example, is the arm against the leg or the eye against the ear armed? No, they act in harmony with each other, mutually cooperate with each other, and are in such fellowship that if one member suffers, the others suffer with it" (1 Corinthians 12:26). And if the irrational members act in this way, how much more should we, the rational members of the spiritual body, whose Head, Christ, desires us to live in peace and harmony with one another.
The Lord Jesus Christ commands most of all that we love one another. Remember what He prayed for and what He inspired in the Apostles before His sufferings. "Holy Father," He cried out to His Heavenly Father, "guard them from enmity, that they may be one, even as we are" (John 17:11, 15). "Children," He said to the Apostles, "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another" (John 13:33-34). See how much Jesus Christ wanted us to live in mutual love!
Jesus Christ not only commanded us to love other people, but also revealed in Himself His Divine love for us. Why did He, being God, descend from Heaven to earth and take upon Himself our mortal flesh? Out of love for us, people. Why did He, being innocent, suffer greatly and was crucified on the Cross as a lawless man? Out of the same love for us. Why does He suffer long from our sins and not only has mercy on us, but also sends us various gifts of grace? Out of love for us.
We must love one another also because love for our neighbors has a high moral dignity and constitutes the great perfection of a Christian. It likens us to God, because God is Love. God acts in all things out of love for His creatures, and especially for us, people, whom He loves so much that He sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we may live by Him (John 3:16). Love is the source and sum total of all other virtues, and therefore it is higher than all virtues. "Now abide these three," writes the Apostle Paul, "faith, hope, love; but love is the greatest of them" (1 Corinthians 13:13). Without love, all our knowledge, feats, and faith itself have no moral value.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.