2025/02/10
182. The Prophesied One, Part 6
The final episode in the scene of the resurrection of the Lord of the Gospel of John begins, "Peter turned and saw following them the disciple whom Jesus loved, who had lain close to his breast at the supper and had said, 'Lord, who is it that is going to betray you? '" (Jn 21:20). Therefore, first of all, we need to think back on "the disciple whom Jesus loved" at "the supper".
At the last supper in the Gospel of John, when Jesus was washing Peter's feet, he said, "[Y]ou are clean, but not every one of you" (Jn 13:10). Peter must have been nearby and heard this. After washing the Apostles' feet, Jesus said, "[I]t is that the scripture may be fulfilled, 'He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.'" (13:18). He then declared, "Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me" (13:21), with the preface, "I tell you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he" (13:19).
In this tense situation, the disciples could not guess who he was talking about. Then Peter signalled to "the disciple whom Jesus loved," who was right next to Jesus, to ask him who he was talking about. The Gospel says, "So lying thus, close to the breast of Jesus, he said to him, 'Lord, who is it?' Jesus answered, 'It is he to whom I shall give this morsel when I have dipped it.'" (13:25-26). Considering the flow of the following story, it seems that only the disciple leaning on Jesus' chest heard his reply. The other Apostles immediately paid their attention to Jesus giving the dipped morsel to Judas and telling Judas, "What you are going to do, do quickly" (13:27). That is why it says, "Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him" (13:28).
After Judas left, the remaining Apostles resumed conversation with Jesus as if nothing had happened. Even Peter, who had earlier heard Jesus say, "[Y]ou are clean, but not every one of you," seemed to have lost interest. The reason for their attitude was that "the disciple whom Jesus loved" asked Jesus the question in peace while leaning against his chest. He had seen the love of God, which was shown to him with the passion of the Father and the thoughts of a mother, in the way Jesus washed the Apostles' feet and believed in it. He had already experienced the words of Jesus, who said, "Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? 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" (14:10). He had believed that the Father was in Jesus, and had become a "child" of Jesus, the divine.
The "disciple whom Jesus loved" is the one who becomes the "child" of Jesus, the divine. That is as it is written, "But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (1:12-13). After that, Jesus spoke to the Apostles, saying, "Children" (13:33). Jesus called out to them once more, "Children" after he had been risen. That was just when risen Jesus asked the Apostles, who were fishing, "Children, have you any fish?" (21:5).
St. Francis may have had a vision of mother and child in religious life1, based on the fact that "the disciple whom Jesus loved" was the child of Jesus, the divine, and also on the description in the Book of Revelation, "He who conquers shall have this heritage, and I will be his God and he shall be my son" (Rev 21:7), and on the words of Jesus, "And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven" (Mt 23:9). From this, we can see how well he knew the New Testament. The San Damiano Crucifix suggests that mastering the Gospel of John and the training of the Book of Revelation makes this possible.
1. See The Writings of Saint Francis of Assisi: "To Brother Leo" and "Of Living Religiously in a Hermitage," translated by Father Paschal Robinson (Philadelphia: The Dolphin Press, 1906).
To be continued
Maria K. M.
