John, the son of Zebedee and brother of James, belonged with Peter and his brother to the inner circle of the Twelve. The fourth Gospel calls him the disciple whom Jesus loved: he reclines next to the Lord at the Last Supper, stands beneath the Cross where Jesus entrusts his mother to him and him to his mother, outruns Peter to the empty tomb and, seeing the burial cloths, believes. The Gospel of this feast is that Easter morning scene, read now within the Christmas Octave because the Church sees one mystery in the manger and the empty tomb. Tradition ascribes to him the fourth Gospel, the three Letters of John, and the Book of Revelation, and remembers his long years at Ephesus and his exile on Patmos. The first reading of the feast is the opening of the First Letter of John: "What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes and touched with our hands concerns the Word of life." That insistence on having touched him is why the day belongs to Christmas, and it is his prologue — "And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" — that the Church proclaims at the Mass of Christmas Day. White vestments are worn, since ancient tradition holds that John alone among the apostles did not die a martyr, though he shared the sufferings of the persecuted Church. His symbol among the four living creatures is the eagle, for the height at which his Gospel begins. The Book of Blessings provides for the blessing of wine on his feast, an old custom drawn from a legend of the apostle drinking unharmed from a poisoned cup, and the toast to the love of Saint John is still kept in many households and religious communities on this day.

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Christmas

December 27

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