Patrick Comerford
Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (20 April 2025) and continuing through Ascension Day until the Day of Pentecost or Whit Sunday tomorrow (8 June 2025).
The pop-up Greek Café at Swinfen Harris Church Hall, Το Στεκι Μας (‘Our Place’) takes every first Saturday of the month, and I pop in there later today, between 10:30 am and 5 pm for a Greek coffee, a chat and a traditional Greek dessert. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
John 21: 20-25 (NRSVA):
20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next to Jesus at the supper and had said, ‘Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?’ 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, what about him?’ 22 Jesus said to him, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!’ 23 So the rumour spread in the community that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?’
24 This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. 25 But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
Today’s Reflection:
The Gospel reading today brings us to the last of the post-Resurrection appearances and the conclusion of Saint John’s Gospel.
This morning’s reading (John 21: 20-25) at the Eucharist challenges us to consider whether we are going to follow Jesus to the end, no matter how, when or where death may come.
In today’s reading, we have an insight into the rumours that persisted in the community that the Beloved Disciple would not die (verse 23). But death comes to us all.
Last week, I spent a day in John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, for tests, scans and consultations on my pulmonary sarcoidosis and the traces of sarcoidosis in my heart. I have another day of tests, scans and consultations in the Churchill Hospital in Oxford later next week. In between waiting the results of one set of appointments and waiting for a date for the second set of appointments meant I had to forego any ideas of being to be in Dublin today for family reasons, but has also made me realise, yet again, how we all depend on the NHS here, and how vulnerable and fragile we are. At 73, I may not quite be in rude health. But my distant ‘cousin’ Kevin Martin, who died two years ago (14 June 2023), would greet me on my birthdays with the traditional Jewish greeting of ‘ad meah v’esrim’, ‘may you live until 120!’ (עד מאה ועשרים שנה).
I may not live to be 120, despite everyone’s good wishes. I am certainly not going to live for ever. Are the other disciples engaging in humorous banter or hyperbole when they suggest the youngest among them is going to outlive the rest of them so that it appears as if he is going to live for ever?
Surely they realise everyone is going to die – including Lazarus who was raised from the dead after three days (John 11), including the son of the widow of Nairn (Luke 7: 11-17), the daughter of Jairus (Luke 8: 40-56), the centurion’s slave (Matthew 8: 5-13; Luke 7: 1-10), the official’s son in Capernaum (John 4: 46-54), Peter’s mother-in-law (Matthew 8: 14-15; Mark 1: 29-31; Luke 4: 38-39) …
Saint John too lived a life of service and suffering: he was exiled on Patmos, and although he died in old age in Ephesus, there were numerous attempts to make him a martyr.
Saint Paul names John as one of the pillars of the Church in Jerusalem (see Galatians 2: 9). Later, tradition says, he takes over the position of leadership Paul once had in the Church in Ephesus and is said to have lived there and to have been buried there.
According to a tradition mentioned by Saint Jerome, in the second general persecution, in the year 95, Saint John was arrested and sent to Rome, where he was thrown into a vat or cauldron of boiling oil but miraculously was preserved from death.
According to ancient tradition, during the reign of the Emperor Domitian, Saint John was once given a cup of poisoned wine, but he blessed the cup and the poison rose out of the cup in the form of a serpent. Saint John then drank the wine with no ill effect. A chalice with a serpent signifying the powerless poison has become one of his symbols.
Domitian then banished Saint John to the isle of Patmos. It was there in the year 96 he had the heavenly visions recorded in the Book of Revelation. After the death of Domitian, it is said, he returned to Ephesus in the year 97, and there tradition says he wrote his gospel about the year 98. He is also identified with the author of the three Johannine letters.
According to Eusebius, Saint John died in peace at Ephesus, in the third year of Trajan, that is, the year 100, when he was about 94 years old. According to Saint Epiphanius, he was buried on a mountain outside the town. The Basilica of Saint John the Theologian gave the later name of Aysoluk to the hill above the town of Selçuk, beside Ephesus.
The story of the poisoned chalice may be pious myth, but it seeks to tell us that Saint John too took up the challenge to drink the cup that Christ drinks (Mark 10: 38-39).
For there is another poison that can damage the Church today – we can fail to love.
It is in sharing and serving with those who are most like Christ in his suffering that the world becomes united with the Christ we meet in Word and Sacrament, and there too we find eternal life.
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Today’s Prayers (Saturday 7 June 2025):
The new edition of Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), covers the period from 1 July to 20 November 2025. The theme in the prayer diary this week (1-7 June) has been ‘Volunteers’ Week’ and it was introduced last Sunday by Carol Miller, Church Engagement Manager, USPG.
The USPG prayer diary invites us to pray today (Saturday 7 June 2025):
Jesus, God who walked among us, bring deliverance for those who are displaced and seeking refuge, those.
The Collect:
O God the King of glory,
you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ
with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
we beseech you, leave us not comfortless,
but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us
and exalt us to the place where our Saviour Christ is gone before,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Eternal God, giver of love and power,
your Son Jesus Christ has sent us into all the world
to preach the gospel of his kingdom:
confirm us in this mission,
and help us to live the good news we proclaim;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Risen, ascended Lord,
as we rejoice at your triumph,
fill your Church on earth with power and compassion,
that all who are estranged by sin
may find forgiveness and know your peace,
to the glory of God the Father.
Collect on the Eve of Pentecost (Whit Sunday):
God, who as at this time
taught the hearts of your faithful people
by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit:
grant us by the same Spirit
to have a right judgement in all things
and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort;
through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Yesterday’s Reflections
Continued Tomorrow
The site of Saint John’s tomb near Ephesus is marked by a marble plaque and four Byzantine pillars (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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