The third day of Christmas my true love gave to me……more love.

Today we celebrate the feast of St John the evangelist, the author of the fourth Gospel and one who was known as ‘the one whom Jesus loved.’ What a lovely and endearing title to have. What pangs of jealousy it must have caused among the other apostles; and we can assume that jealousy among the apostles did exist because we know that the apostles were not perfect but were called to perfection.

Jesus showed St. John particular instances of kindness and affection above all the rest. He had the happiness to be present with Peter and James at the Transfiguration of Christ, and was permitted to witness His agony in the Garden. He was allowed to rest on Our Saviour’s bosom at the Last Supper, and to him Jesus confided the care of His holy Mother as He hung dying on the Cross.

Yet in some way we get a glimpse of his imperfections. John was a man who had a past and perhaps one that could best describe him as an ‘angry young man.’ Remember that he and his brother wanted to call down brimstone from heaven because the Samaritans were not welcoming. John had to learn love and he learnt it from the best; from Jesus. When he did that’s all he wrote and spoke about.

Saint Jerome, while living in Palestine in the late 300s, relates a touching anecdote still being told at that time about John the Evangelist. When John was old and feeble, Jerome recounts, and no longer able to walk or preach, he would be carried among the faithful in church and would repeat only one thing over and over again: “My little children, love one another.”

The season of Christmas is the season of love. ‘God so loved the world’ is a statement that introduces the tremendous love of God. God so cared for us, so valued us, so protected us that he gave! He gave not just a partridge in a pear tree or two calling birds or three French hens; he gave the best; he gave his ONLY SON.

Think for a while what love really demands. It demands that love should be passionate. It demands the love gives. It demands that love gives the best. It demands that love gives the one thing we don’t want to part with. It demands sacrifice. When we do this and more, we too become the beloved, the ones that Jesus loves.

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