Episode 1486: Acts of the Apostles (Part 6, Chapter 6)

Salome begins by reflecting on John's unusual way of describing himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” She sees in that phrase not self-importance but John's lifelong tendency to place attention on what he had received rather than on himself. From childhood, John had possessed an unusual capacity to listen, ponder, and resist forcing difficult questions into easy answers. Under Jesus, that temperament became one of his greatest gifts. Salome sees its eventual fruit in John's Gospel, which does more than recount events: it repeatedly explores their deeper meaning and presents Jesus through the reflections of a man who had spent decades considering what he had witnessed. Salome then returns to the cross and John's decision to come back after initially fleeing with the other disciples. There Jesus entrusted Mary to John and John to Mary, creating a relationship that Salome believes shaped her son profoundly. She does not see Mary as replacing her, but as giving John access to the person who had known Jesus longer than any other human being and understood uniquely what loving Him could cost. John cared for Mary, according to Christian tradition, and Salome imagines that their years together contributed to the intimacy and tenderness with which he would eventually write about Jesus. Finally, Salome describes the unexpected change in John after James's martyrdom. She feared that losing the brother who had accompanied and challenged him throughout his life might diminish him. Instead, John gradually came more fully into his own. His contemplative nature deepened, and over the years what he had witnessed and pondered began to find expression in the writings associated with him. The transformation of the younger Son of Thunder was therefore very different from his brother's. James's fire culminated in courageous martyrdom; John's matured into a sustained testimony about Christ, truth, light, and above all love.