Jn 13:21-33.36-38.
Reclining at table with his disciples, Jesus was deeply troubled and
testified, «Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.»
The disciples looked at one another, at a loss as to whom he meant.
One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, was reclining at Jesus'
side. So Simon Peter nodded to him to find out whom he meant.
He leaned back against Jesus' chest and said to him, "Master, who is it?"
How often I have had the experience of looking into a person’s face and seeing something that perhaps they did not even know was showing: their feelings, their pain, their worries and even their deepest desires. I don’t mean to pry or to assume, but at times it is like a marquee revealing their deepest secrets. It is then confirmed in the manner with which they then share with me. In the passage from the Gospel of John, our founder highlights the moment when John is leaning on the chest of Jesus. John was so close to Jesus that it seems he read the Lord’s heart as I sometimes read faces. John “heard” with the ears of his heart the love that flowed through the heart of Jesus. He “heard” love that suffered for the other and he “heard” compassion and mercy; suffering would pass and that the Lord’s joy would be ours and that our joy would be full….
Oh John, I read your Gospel and I “hear” the heart of the Master. Thank you for transmitting that love to us and not omitting to communicate to us even a heart beat of love that flowed through Jesus and gave us the Church and his body and blood in the Eucharist. Thank you, John. You are our beloved brother and apostle. May all our priests know the heart beats of Jesus heart as you experienced them. Amen.
Teresa Monaghen reflecting on Bishop Giaquinta’s book, The Cenacle
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