10/04/2024

The readings for today's Mass are part of the New Testament that did not become the accepted record of Jesus' life, teaching and its effect on those who had known him during the three years of his public life, until three hundred years after the Resurrection.

There are many scholars and saints who have studied these texts. They are still being perused today and have become part of the communal worship of Christians all over the Earth. 

St Luke did not meet Jesus. He was, as we are, blessed because he "did not see and yet believed". He did, as did St Paul, learn of Jesus' life and teaching directly from the 11 surviving original Apostles. St John on the other hand has been known throughout the centuries as "the beloved disciple" and was instructed by Jesus speaking from the cross to take care of Mary, his mother, and receive care from her.

Very much more must have happened within the first Christian Community than is recorded in the Acts and St John concludes his Gospel with an open acknowledgement that all the books of the World could not contain what he himself has witnessed.

Jesus' discourses recorded in John are not verbatim reports. They are the recollections of "the beloved disciple" enhanced by "the ponderings in her heart" of Mary Theotokos. The Gospel of St John is very much a memoir which contains the development of John's Theology as much as it contains a biography of the three years of Jesus' public life.

Dear Lord, help me to know, love and serve you . Let each day of my life continue without sin. Let me face up to any hardships that I might encounter and let the prayer of my heart be always guided by the prayers of Our Lady and all your saints. Let me continue to be open and also searching for the light of your revelation so that my sins can be forgiven even though they are black blight on my soul which you created to live in the light that is the being of you Father, Son and Holy Spirit.