Jesus said to him, “What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours? You follow me.”
"Need to know" seems to be an idiom of military culture; meaning, "You will be informed of what you need to know to fulfill your mission."
Implied: "You will not be informed of everything there is to know; that information belongs to your superiors." Although Jesus, in the same Gospel of Saint John, has said,
"I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father."
he has no intention of revealing to Peter the mission of the unnamed "beloved disciple." Traditional memories of the early Church say that John, the author of the Gospel, outlived the martyred Peter.
I believe the beloved disciple's actual identity is you, the reader. He is an unremarked, unidentified witness of the Gospel from its first chapter, one of the two disciples of John who followed Jesus. He represents the individual disciple of every age who must see and give testimony to the Lord's ministry, defer to Peter and his authority, and survive -- in a manner of speaking -- as the Word is passed to each generation.
"Horatio" plays a similar role in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Without his survival no one would be left to tell the story!
O good Horatio, what a wounded name,Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me!If thou didst ever hold me in thy heartAbsent thee from felicity awhile,And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,To tell my story.
Your mission and mine is to tell the story of Jesus and, as they are moved by the Holy Spirit they will pass the word along.
In the meanwhile, our mission is also like Peter's, to follow the Lord. It is enough for each of us to complete our mission in this time and place. No one can predict what the Spirit will demand of future generations. As Saint Francis said toward the end of his life,
"I have done what was mine to do. May Christ teach you what is yours."
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.