Main news for 20 October 2025

The apostle stands beside the Most Pure Virgin at the Cross and, by the word of the Lord Jesus, receives her as his mother. From that time, the apostle writes, "this disciple," and it is very characteristic of him not to name himself when possible, took Her to his own. Many Christians, mainly Orthodox and Catholics, are convinced that at this moment the apostle John represents the whole Church, all generations of Christ's disciples. At this moment he is the first of us, and in his person all of us become brothers of Jesus and children of Mary.

This conviction of Christians is deeper than it may seem at first glance. The point is that in the New Testament our connection with the Lord Jesus can truly be so immediate and strong that His family becomes ours. Finishing his Gospel, already aged, he says of himself, his life, and Christ's Gospel: "This is the disciple who testifies to these things... and his testimony is true." Thus the whole life of the apostle is a testimony to the cruciform love of the Son of God, and this too is not only a fact of the personal biography of John, son of Zebedee, but a path for every Christian.

In these key moments, standing at the Cross, Mary's adoption, and witness to Jesus, the apostle John embodies the whole Church, as Peter embodies it in the preaching on the day of Pentecost, as each of us embodies it when he fulfills God's will for himself.