Today is the feast of St John the Divine, Beloved Apostle of Christ. I chose him as my patron saint on my Confirmation day for three reasons:

1) He is the Apostle who laid his head on Christ’s breast at the institution of the Blessed Sacrament, and thus the first devotee of the Sacred Heart. He is also the only Apostle to see Christ’s side riven by the lance and the water and last of Christ’s blood flow from thence. Which leads to reason number two.

2) St John is the only Apostle who stood under the cross of Christ crucified. He is thus the most courageous of the Apostles and I’m sure that this painful event alone served as his martyrdom. It is my suspicion that St John is the only Apostle NOT to be martyred because he had already conformed to the sufferings of Christ by actually being there next to Our Lady. Which leads me to my third reason.

3) St John is the guardian of Blessed Mary and also the first one other than Christ to be called her “son” when Christ said to His Mother, “Behold your son!” St John is also the theologian of the Incarnation, both by his lifelong love and devotion for the Mother of God, but also by His profound record of the Incarnation at the beginning of his Gospel…”In the beginning was the Word…and the Word was made flesh.”

St John loved Christ, he witnessed his passion and death, and he was the divinely elected guardian of the Blessed Virgin. It is my prayer that Christ might also grant me to become one who beholds the Sacred Heart and Divine Mercy of Christ, contemplates the sufferings of Christ, and lastly, sees in the Mother of Christ, the beautiful condescension of Christ in His Incarnation by a pure Virgin.

It is my hope that others will also develop a devotion for St John and see him a godly example of what it means to be a “beloved disciple of Christ.”

Happy St John’s Day!