• St. John (100). Apostle. Patron of Theologians, Editors, Publishing, and Asia Minor. (Current, Traditional)

ST. JOHN, the youngest of the Apostles in age, was called to follow Christ on the banks of the Jordan during the first days of our Lord’s ministry. He was one of the privileged few present at the Transfiguration and the Agony in the garden. At the Last Supper, his head rested on the bosom of Jesus, and in the hours of the Passion, when others fled or denied their Master, St. John kept his place by the side of Jesus, and at the last stood by the Cross with Mary. From the Cross the dying Saviour bequeathed His Mother to the care of the faithful Apostle, who from that hour took her to his own;” thus fitly, as St. Austin says, “to a virgin was the Virgin entrusted.” After the Ascension, St. John lived first at Jerusalem, and then at Ephesus. He was thrown by Domitian into a cauldron of boiling oil, and is thus reckoned a martyr, though miraculously preserved from hurt. Afterwards he was banished to the isle of Patmos, where he received the heavenly visions described in the Apocalypse. He died at a great age in peace, at Ephesus, in the year 100.

REFLECTION: St. John is a living example of our Lord’s saying, “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.”

WORD OF THE DAY

REDEMPTION. The salvation of humanity by Jesus Christ. Literally, to redeem means to free or buy back. Humanity was held captive in that it was enslaved by sin. Since the devil overcame human beings by inducing them to sin, they were said to be in bondage to the devil. Moreover, the human race was held captive as to a debt of punishment, to the payment of which it was bound by divine justice.

On all these counts, the Passion of Christ was sufficient and superabundant satisfaction for human guilt and the consequent debt of punishment. His Passion was a kind of price or ransom that paid the cost of freeing humanity from both obligations. Christ rendered satisfaction, not by giving money, but by spending what was of the highest value. He gave himself, and therefore his Passion is called humanity’s Redemption. (Etym. Latin redemptio, a buying back, ransoming, redemption.)

Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon SJ (Get the real one at Eternal Life — don’t accept an abridged or edited version of this masterpiece!)

Christmastide Meditations

Daily devotional meditations on the Birth of Our Savior and Christmastide: The Holy Mother & The Employments of Heaven – Christmas Meditation Day 3 (Dec 27)