GREAT COMMISSION ^_[1]

FIRST BORN SON     

1.  At first glance, some elements of the resurrection narrative of John's gospel may appear to be incidental.  A closer look, however, will uncover a compelling view of the right relationship between love and authority as personified by Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved.  [Jn 13:23]  Note that the Beloved Disciple outruns Peter to the tomb.  He stops and waits for Peter to arrive and allows him to enter first.  Why does Love--a sign of resurrection and innocence--pause at the empty tomb of our Risen Lord? Why does Love submit its creative and regenerative powers to Authority which conserves and bequeaths?  The identity of the two apostles, their charisms, and their relationship to one another may provide the answer. To refresh our memory of Peter, about whom many wonderful stories are told: he was the first to profess to Jesus: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  [Mt 16:16]  Jesus called him to be first among his apostles:  "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it."  [Mt 16:18]  By accepting the leadership of the Church, Peter assumed the status of first born son in the apostolic family. He receives the charism of authority and servant-discipleship over the whole Church. Not by blood lineage could Peter make the claim for his inheritance--Christ appointed him. The Beloved Disciple outruns Peter to the tomb precisely because love, when contrasted to authority in the hierarchy of charisms, is joyously unrestrained and high-spirited. Love, ever fragile and impulsive, yields to authority, ever vigilant and protective. Peter, the rock on which the Church is established, enters first into the mystery of the empty tomb. Peter signifies the governance of the Church which mediates the mysteries of divine revelation, the truth of miraculous interventions and the spiritual integrity of its members. In the person of Peter, the magisterium carefully examines all that has happened and discerns its meaning.  [Jn 20:6-10]  Only then can the Beloved Disciple--the sign of the tender and benevolent faithful--enter and observe. Love is proven by the test of faith and made strong by authenticated belief.

LOVE RECOGNIZES ITS OWN

2. The Church's authority finds its elegant and integral provenance in Christ who instituted it, saying, "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven."  [Mt 16:18-19]  Very significant corollaries attend this statement. The four gospels are unanimous: Simon Peter consistently declares Jesus to be the messiah  (Heb. anointed one); even more pointedly, Simon stresses the full and just cohesion of messiahship and sonship:  "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  [Mt 16:16]  Jesus responds with delight and a benediction--"Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jona!" [Mt 16:17]--for Simon has witnessed his mastery of the essential mission of authority: he has proclaimed Jesus as the Christ and identified God as his father. By pronouncing Simon's true name to be Cephas, meaning rock  (Aramaic), Jesus Christ coheres the Church's proclamation and authority in the person of Peter and his successors--the rock on which the Church will be built. Of critical importance is Jesus' recognitio  (Lat. to examine, recognize)  of the true source of Peter's proclamation and the Lord's own elevation of him as head of the Church:  "For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven."  [Mt 16:17]  Jesus authenticates Peter's headship and hence the Church's authority in the Kingdom of heaven by entrusting to him its keys and the power of binding and loosing.  [Mt 16:19]  In striking contrast to the generative language of institution is Christ's' solemn and categorical exclusion of two powers--one lesser, one greater--from appropriating his establishment of the Church's proclamation and authority. The dominion of creation belongs neither to flesh and blood nor to the powers of death--destined to coalesce in opposition to the Church--but only to Christ who "was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made".  [Jn 1:2-3]  "Against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places"  [Eph 6:12], Jesus places a flaming sword to protect his Church throughout time until the Son of God returns in glory  [cf. Gen 3:24, Lk 17:24]--the power of his word:  "...the powers of death shall not prevail against it!"  [Mt 16:18; Jn 1:1]  To this day, the exact identity of the Beloved Disciple remains a mystery. Was he the apostle John, the author of the fourth gospel and three epistles, the visionary exiled to Patmos to whom the revelation of future glory was entrusted? Sacred Scripture offers the historical sleuth scant clues. Some argue that the Beloved Disciple is Nathaniel whom Jesus declared free from the guile corrupting so many Israelites.  [cf. Jn 1:47]  Others say the Beloved Disciple never existed; the reference is a literary device for ideal love. Still others name Mary Magdalene. Sacred Tradition, in reliance on the Early Church Fathers, declares the disciple to be the youthful John. We may confidently assert that the Beloved Disciple was an intimate colleague of Jesus. All four gospels agree that on the evening before his arrest, the Lord gathered the twelve for the celebration of the Passover feast. No evidence exists that others were invited to his Last Supper. The Beloved Disciple reclines at table with Jesus--"lying close to his breast"  [Jn 13: 23,25]--and assumes the role of intermediary. So close to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is he that the other disciples plead with him to disclose the identity of the Lord's betrayer--seated in their very midst.  [cf. Jn 13:21-30]  In this enduring scene, truth is portrayed as being properly accessed and expressed by love. As well, love is the first to recognize its own. "It is the Lord!" cried the "disciple whom Jesus loved".  [Jn 21:7]   Yet Simon Peter--on whom the authority of the Church would rest--was the first to jump overboard and swim to Christ standing on shore; at the Lord's prompting, Peter returned to the boat and hauled the net full of fish ashore.  [Jn 21:1-11] 

PRUDENT AND BENEFICENT CUSTODY

3.  Mark's gospel recounts an embarrassing episode--widely expounded in the early Christian community--that may help to explain why John's Beloved Disciple is not explicitly identified. John and his brother James approach Jesus with an abrupt and unreserved petition:  "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."  [Mk 10:35-45]  They seek privileged positions at Jesus' right and left in the glory of his Kingdom. Of the many instances in which Jesus calls Peter, James and John to an unprecedented participation in the mysteries of salvation--the premier event being his transfiguration  [Mk 9:1-13]--one cannot help but note the marked absence of Peter in this small-minded scheme to gain power and prestige. The ten apostles--here Mark includes Peter in a subtle but unmistakable way--are incensed; jealousy is a possible motivation. Jesus rejects prestige as an integral value of his Father's Kingdom, challenging James and John to accept the cup of suffering and baptism into the mystery of death. We can! they chirp. Before the convened apostles, a more fertile environment for his lesson, Jesus equates greatness with servant-discipleship:  "Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."  [Mk 10:44-45]  The patronage to which James and John appealed means little to a dedicated servant, still less to a slave and is worth absolutely nothing in the experience of martyrdom. The Church's authority (Gk. exousia) and gospel proclamation (Gk. kerygma) are no more compatible with prestige--a deceptively beautiful but superficial ornament--than authority is tantamount to the exercise of raw power. The apostles' perplexity on these issues would persist for some time. Exasperated by Philip's puerile request to show them the Father, Jesus would exclaim, "The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me; or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves." [Jn 14:8-11]  The gospel proclamation for this Easter Sunday, proclaimed in every generation but not rewritten--is a powerful catechetical tool for the instruction of the Church's members. Perhaps like the one whom Jesus loved, we may be able to outrun the authority of the Church for a time. From our personal vantage point, we may think ourselves more perceptive or sensitive or readily inclined to react appropriately or sympathetically to cultural influences, creative suggestions, and emotional impressions than the Church. Perhaps our reliance on our own agency or instrumentality has not failed us yet.  However privileged we may be to recognize Jesus in a particular and unique way, Holy Scripture wisely cautions us to slow down and trust the Church. Should the authority of the magisterium in faith and morals be rejected, the mystery of Christ's passion, death and resurrection becomes inaccessible. Hence, Christ made no compromise whatsoever regarding the moral obligation of the law and the prophets  [cf. Mt 5:17-18], the form of the Church's apostolic governance, or his entrustment of its pastoral leadership to Peter and the apostles and their successors. Should our heart's love exceed all others, offering us the swiftest recognition of the Lord's presence, we are no more than dead because of our trespasses and very far from God. Who shall draw us out of the howling desert if not Christ?  [cf. Deu 32:10]  Where shall we shelter from the gathering storm if not in his Church?  [cf. Lk 19:41-44]  Indeed, it has pleased the Father to entrust his Spirit to the Church to assure her prudent and beneficent custody of the immeasurable riches of the revelation of God--the law, the prophets, and the new covenant in Christ's name--and that in the coming ages she will shine with the splendor of his workmanship. Having humbled ourselves to Christ the great High Priest and accepted his divine authority in our lives as greater than all mortals, we are invited to recline before the cross of suffering. To cherish Christ on the cross is to understand his sacramental love for his Bride, the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church^[2]:  "With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.  He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love."  [SongSol 2:3-4]  Let us offer to one another the joy of the Risen Lord in the glory of his Easter! May the grace of God which is beyond all understanding keep in your hearts and minds the knowledge that your salvation is confirmed in love and sustained by a great commission, and that every good gift comes from God.