In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
the Holy Spirit, Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ.
Today, we celebrate the Feast of St. John the
Theologian, the Evangelist, the Apostle, and
I have, it's my patron saint, so I have a particular
closeness to St. John. And in a certain way,
St. John converted me into the Orthodox Church.
I had just started coming. This is 30 years ago.
I had just started coming to church a little
bit, a little bit. But I was perplexed. And it
might seem odd, but I was wondering, is Christ
God? Is he God? This really bothered me. And
I said, you know what? I'll find out. And this
is how I'll do it. I'll just take a Bible, and
I'll just randomly open it up to a spot, and
I'll put my finger down and see what it says.
And I open it up, I put my finger down, and it
said, And the word was made flesh and dwelt among
us. It was the most direct answer that you could
possibly get. And at that moment, sort of a light
went off inside of me. And I knew. I knew for
sure that Jesus Christ was God. About nine months
after that, I was baptized. And actually, today,
today is the 30th anniversary of my baptism.
Because I was baptized on the feast of St. John
the Theologian. So obviously, I was already named
John, so I took this. I mean, this is, not only
did he convert me, but, you know, here he is,
right here. My baptism. Shortly after that, only
a few years later, I started a mission over in
Sonoma, and we named the mission after St. John
the Theologian. During that time, I studied the
Gospel of John and the Book of Revelation and
everything he had written, but I also studied
his life. And St. John, I'll just give you a
thumbnail sketch of his life. As we heard today,
he was called by the Lord as a fisherman. He
was called out, and he just went. He gave it
all up, and he followed Christ. He gave up everything.
He followed Christ. Then he followed him all
the way through his ministry. He was there, the
only apostle. He was the only one there at the
Lord's crucifixion. He never left. And because
he was there, the Lord put him as the protector
of his mother, as we also heard today's gospel.
So I felt like this is a great saint for me to
have. And it says also in there he was a saint
beloved by Christ. Christ loved them all, but
particularly John. He's the one that laid his
head on his chest. St. John, then, after the
crucifixion, after the ascension, then they drew
lots for like where they each would go, each
apostle, what part of the world he would go to.
And the part of the world that he drew was Asia
Minor. But he put it off because he had to take
care of the Theotokos. He took, as we heard also
in today's gospel, he took her into his own house
and took care of her until her dormition. Once
she was ascended to heaven, then he left and
he took his close disciple. Prochorus with him
and they went into Asia Minor. They had many
events and many things happened and many miracles
and he converted many people. But they ended
up in Ephesus. And he was there for a number
of years and growing the community. But then
there was a persecution of the church happened.
And he was turned in. He was arrested, and he
was taken all the way to Rome. And in Rome, they
decided they were going to kill him. So they
actually tried to poison him. They gave him poison
somehow, some way, didn't work. Just, you know,
poisons didn't work on him. So then they decided
they would boil him in oil. So they had a big
cauldron, and they boiled the oil, and they...
lowered him into it. Nothing happened to him.
They pulled him out. He was perfectly fine. This
really scared the emperor. He said, I don't know
what's going on here, but I think we're going
to take this guy and put him somewhere else,
not around here. So they sent him journeying
across through the Aegean, and they sent him
to an island. It was called Patmos. And it was
actually being used as a quarry at the time.
So he was there basically as a prisoner, as a
slave, quarrying rock. Now, this part of the
story right here, when he ends up in Patmos,
is a part sort of where I come back into it again.
Back in the year 08, I was blessed by God. to
go to the island of Patmos. And my wife, who
is over here, and a dear friend of mine, my godson,
Joseph, we went with my son, and we all went
to Patmos. And it was in Patmos that ultimately
St. John wrote the Gospel of John, and he also
wrote the Book of Revelation. Now, the Gospel
of John, You know, he didn't just go and sit
down in the shade, you know, and let's see if
I can remember what happened. You know, it wasn't
like that at all. He fasted first for 10 days.
And they're on top of a mountain. Fasted for
10 days. Then an angel came to him and said,
fast for another 10 days. And he did. And his
scribe, because St. John, by the way, couldn't.
Couldn't write, read or write. Couldn't do it.
He was just a simple fisherman. But his scribe,
he says, go get paper. Come back. He fasted for
the other ten days, and then all of a sudden
there was lightning and thunder and all this
commotion in the heavens, and he said, okay,
write what I say. And he starts, in the beginning
was the word. And the word was with God. And
the word was God. And so on it goes through.
I was blessed when I was on Patmos to go up on
top of that very mountain. And there's a monastery
up there now that's dedicated to St. John the
Theologian. And it's up there where the gospel
was given. And it was a lovely place. I went
up there and just prayed and was there. Here's
the place where this gospel came from. Then the
next day, we went down the hill and we went into
the cave of the revelation. That's where St.
John went when the book of Revelation was revealed.
The whole vision of it was revealed to him. And
we went there, and it's small. You see on that
icon there, there's a cave. It doesn't look exactly
like that now, but it's a cave. And we went there,
and we went in, and it was Sunday, and they were
having divine liturgy. Very, very, the altar
is a lot smaller than the one we have here. Very
small. And there was a monk, a higher monk in
there. He was doing the liturgy. He was getting
ready to do the liturgy. And I came in with my
friends, and we're in there, and, you know, wow,
we're in the cave. And all of a sudden, my son,
who speaks Greek, who's lived in Greece for quite
a while, He went up and he spoke to the priest
a little bit, and the priest goes, come, to me.
He says, come. He takes me in the altar. He's
just getting ready to do the liturgy. I venerate
the altar. I go in, and he points over in the
corner. He says, you know, they were saying,
go over there, you know, and be against that
wall. And I went over there, and there were handholds
in silver in the wall and a plate of silver.
This was where St. John was laying down when
he received the book of Revelation, where he
laid his head, where he put his hands. And the
priest, the haramunk, told me, go there. And
I laid down and I put my head there and my hands,
and he started the divine liturgy. And I just
started weeping and weeping and was... basically
sort of lifted out of myself. I mean, it was
so extraordinary. It was like, you know, one
of the most, probably the most spiritual event
of my life. And I was just there in this, and
I wasn't even thinking that much. It was all
happening in my heart. That I was there with
St. John through all this time since he'd been
there, but I was there with him. And the whole
book of Revelation is like being opened up, not
to me personally, but it's happening. It's happening
like it always happens. And again, it was the
most extraordinary liturgy I've ever been in
my entire life. And again, I just wept and wept
and wept. Because it was so beautiful. It was
so extraordinarily powerful. St. John, he was
freed from the island of Patmos. Another emperor
arose in Rome and freed all those people that
he had sent there that were religious prisoners.
So St. John went back to Ephesus. and lived there
for quite a number of years. And it became a
very vibrant, growing community. And John lived
to be old. It's not quite sure, but he was at
least 100, because he was young when he was with
Christ. I mean, he was in his late teens probably.
But by the time he reposed in Ephesus, he was
over 100. He got old and he got weak. And he
couldn't even hardly move around much anymore.
And so they used to take him to church. He couldn't
quite walk there. So they would carry him in.
Like in a chair. They would carry him in. And
they'd bring him in through the church. And the
people would come up to him. Wanting to receive
a blessing. And they wanted a word from him.
And the word he gave them was, love one another.
Just love one another. That is good enough. And
he would say it over and over again. Just love
one another. That is good enough. And the people
would come up to him and say, how come you always
say that? He says, because it's the Lord's commandment.
It's the Lord's commandment that we love one
another. So just love one another. And that's
good enough. Now, why do I want to tell this
story? Well, first, is that each one of us, each
baptized person, has a saint that you've taken
their name. That saint is close to you. Close.
So we should sort of open our heart up. to that
saint and pray to them and just try to be close
because it's very important. You know, it's not
like you're just named because, well, you know,
my grandfather was named John, you know, so,
I mean, that's how I was named earlier. You know,
it's because my grandfather was a John. But no,
beyond that, we want to be close to that saint.
But also, the other part of this homily is that
we remember St. John the theologian. We keep
him close to our heart. St. John, his gospel
is like the highest gospel. When people study
scripture, you start off by studying Genesis.
And then you work your way through. The last
book you study is the Gospel of John. And the
highest part of that Gospel is the prologue to
John, the prologue to that Gospel. It's the center,
as far as Scripture, it's the center of the church.
We all know what's the center feast day for the
church? It's Pascha. What do we read on Pascha
night at the liturgy? It's the first reading
of the year, if you will. We read the gospel,
the prologue to the gospel of John. In the beginning
was the word. So it creates like the center that
all scripture revolves and moves around. Also,
of course, I mean, there's his epistles, which
are astonishing. There's also the book of Revelation.
Now, many people read the book of Revelation,
sort of skim around through this and that, and
they're looking for things. They're looking for
signs, you know. Ah, this is a sign that... The
end is near. This is a sign that the end is near.
This is a sign that the end is near. People have
done this forever. But there's a part of the
book of Revelation that we all need to read and
try to remember and have close to our heart.
And this is the very end. The very end. It's
after... The descent of the city of God. See,
if God descends, and then he says this, and he
said, and he showed me a river of the water of
life, clear as crystal, coming forth from the
throne of God and the Lamb. In the midst of the
city street, on both sides of the river, there
was the tree of life. bearing twelve fruits,
yielding his fruit according to each month, and
the leaves for the healings of nations. And there
shall be no more a cursed thing, but the throne
of God, and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his
servants shall serve him. And they shall see
his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads.
And night shall be no more, and they shall have
no need. Of light of lamp. Or light of sun. For
the Lord God. Will shed light upon them. And
they shall reign forever. And ever. And then
the very end. The very last. Sentence. In the
book of Revelation. He says. Amen. Come Lord
Jesus. The grace. of our Lord Jesus Christ be
with you all. Amen.