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From: 1 John 1:1-4

Prologue

[1] That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our
hands, concerning the word of life--[2] the life was made manifest, and
we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life
which was with the Father and was made manifest to us--[3] that which
we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have
fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his
Son Jesus Christ. [4] And we are writing this that our joy may be
complete.

Commentary:

1-4. Since the time of the Fathers, these verses have been described as
the prologue", like the prologue of the Fourth Gospel (Jn 1:1-18). In
fact, there are many similarities in doctrine, style and even language
between the two.

Both passages sing the praises of the mystery of the Incarnation: the
Word of God who existed from all eternity, "from the beginning", became
man (has been seen, heard, looked upon and touched) so that men might
partake of divine life--might have "fellowship", communion, with the
Father and the Son. Like the Gospel prologue, this one is written in a
rhythmical way--"That which was..., which we have heard..., which we
have seen...". And many of the ideas are the same--for example, the
reference to "the beginning" (cf. Jn 1:1); the term "the Word" to refer
to the second Person of the Blessed Trinity; the reference to "life"
(cf. Jn 1:4).

As St Bede points out, "from the very start of the epistle we are being
taught the divinity and, at the same time, the humanity of our God and
Lord Jesus Christ" ("In I Epist. S. Ioannis, ad loc.").

1. "That which was from the beginning": although the pronoun used is
neuter--as if to indicate the ineffable character of the mystery of
Christ--the whole phrase refers not to a thing or an abstract teaching,
but to the divine Person of the Son, who in the fullness of time was
made manifest (v. 2), assuming a human nature. In other words, St John,
as in his Gospel, is teaching that Jesus, a historical person (the
Apostles have lived with him, have seen him, have heard him speak) is the
eternal Word of God (cf. Jn 1:1 and note).

"That which we have heard,...seen...": all those references to
perception by the senses show the Apostle's desire to make it clear
that God really did become man. This may be because certain heretics
were denying the Incarnation, or it may simply be that he thought it
necessary to spell out this fundamental truth of our faith. He did so
in the Gospel (cf., e.g., Jn 20:30-31); and in this letter we
frequently find phrases like "Jesus Christ has come in the flesh"
(4:2); "Jesus is the Christ" (2:22; cf. 5:1); "Jesus is the Son of God"
(4:15; cf.5:1, 12,20).

We have recently been reminded that "the Church reverently preserved
the mystery of the Son of God, who was made man, and in the course of
the ages and of the centuries has propounded it for belief in a more
explicit way"; moreover, what the Church teaches "concerning the one
and the same Christ the Son of God, begotten before the ages in his
divine nature and in time in his human nature, and also concerning the
eternal persons of the Most Holy Trinity, belongs to the immutable
truth of the Catholic faith" (SCDF, "Mysterium Filii Dei", 2 and 6).

2. St John introduces this verse by way of parenthesis to explain what
he means by "the word of life". In the Gospel he had written, "In him
[the Word] was life" (Jn 1:4) and elsewhere he records Jesus'
statement, "I am the bread of life" (Jn 6:35, 48). These expressions
declare that the Son of God has life in all its fullness, that is,
divine life, the source of all life, natural and supernatural. Jesus in
fact identified himself with Life (cf. Jn 11:25; 14:6). By the
Incarnation, the Word of God manifests true life and at the same time
makes it possible for that life to be communicated to men--imperfectly,
by means of grace, while they are in this world, and perfectly in
heaven, by means of the beatific vision (cf. 1 Jn 5: 12).

"And we testify to it": the testimony of the Apostles is something
unique in the history of the Church, because (unlike those who succeed
them) they know our Lord personally, they have been "witnesses" of his
life, death and resurrection (cf. Lk 24:48; Acts 1:8).

"With the Father": the Greek implies closeness, difference, and the
mutual relationship between Father and Son, so providing a glimpse of
the mystery of the Blessed Trinity (cf. note on Jn 1:1).

3-4. This testimony about Christ is designed to lead to fellowship and
complete joy. Fellowship with the Apostles (the Greek word is
"koinonia") means, firstly, having the same faith as those who lived
with Jesus: "They saw our Lord in the body," St Augustine reminds us,
"and they heard words from his lips and have proclaimed them to us; we
also have heard them, but we have not seen him [...]. They saw him, we
do not see him, and yet we have fellowship with them, because we have
the same faith" ("In Epist. Ioann. ad Parthos", 1, 3).

To have fellowship with the Father and the Son we need to have the same
faith as the Apostles: "St John openly teaches that those who desire to
partake of union with God must first partake of union with the Church,
learn the same faith and benefit from the same sacraments as the
Apostles received from the fullness of Truth made flesh" (St Bede, "In
I Epist. S. Ioannis, ad loc."). The Church, the Second Vatican Council
teaches, is not simply a collection of people who think the same way;
it is the people of God "whom Christ established as a communion of
life, love and truth" ("Lumen Gentium", 9).

Fellowship, communion, with the Apostles, with the Church, has as its
purpose to bring about union with God ("with the Father and with his
Son Jesus Christ"); this is a subject St John develops over the course
of this letter, as he previously did in his Gospel (cf., e.g., Jn 17:
20ff). Here he uses expressions such as "to have the Son", and, in
respect of the Son, "to have the Father" (2:23; 5:11ff); "to be in God"
(2:5; 5:20); "to abide in God" (2:6, 24; 3:24; 4:13, 15, 16). This
deep, intimate communion means that, without losing his personality,
man shares in a wonderful and real way in the life of God himself. If
Sacred Scripture uses many different expressions in this connection, it
is due to the fact that the human mind, because it is so limited,
cannot fully grasp the marvelous truth of communion with God.

Complete joy is the outcome of this communion. Most manuscripts say
"our joy"; others, including the Vulgate, say "your joy". The
difference is not important, because "our" involves the Apostles and
the faithful, particularly in view of the mutual fellowship previously
mentioned (cf. Jn 15:11; 17:13). This joy, which will reach its
fullness in the next life, is already in this life in some sense
complete, insofar as knowledge of Jesus is the only thing that can
satisfy man's aspirations.

1:5-2:29. This section describes what communion with God is, and the
demands it makes on us. We can say there are two parts in the section:
the first (1:5 - 2: 11) teaches that communion with God means walking
in the light and, therefore, rejecting sin and keeping the
commandments. The second (2:12-19) warns the readers to guard against
worldly concupiscence and not trust false teachers.

St John is writing as a pastor of souls who has lived the life of the
Lord and reflected deeply upon it. His teaching interweaves truths of
faith with moral and ascetical demands because he wants Christians to
live in a way consistent with their faith. Therefore, the text does not
really divide into a doctrinal section and a moral section.

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

From: John 20:1a, 2-8

The Empty Tomb

[1a] Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb
early. [2] So she ran, and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple,
the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord
out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him." [3]Peter
then came out with the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb.
[4] They both ran, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the
tomb first; [5] and stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there,
but he did not go in. [6] Then Simon Peter came, following him, and
went into the tomb; he saw the linen cloths lying, [7] and the napkin,
which had been on His head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up
in a place by itself. [8] Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb
first, also went in, and he saw and believed.

Commentary:

1-2. All four Gospels report the first testimonies of the holy women and
the disciples regarding Christ's glorious resurrection, beginning with
the fact of the empty tomb (cf. Matthew 28:1-15; Mark 16:1ff; Luke
24:1-12) and then telling of the various appearances of the risen
Jesus.

Mary Magdalene was one of the women who provided for our Lord during
His journeys (Luke 8:1-3); along with the Virgin Mary she bravely
stayed with Him right up to His final moments (John 19:25), and she saw
where His body was laid (Luke 23:55). Now, after the obligatory
Sabbath rest, she goes to visit the tomb. The Gospel points out that
she went "early, when it was still dark": her love and veneration led
her to go without delay, to be with our Lord's body.

4. The Fourth Gospel makes it clear that, although the women, and
specifically Mary Magdalene, were the first to reach the tomb, the
Apostles were the first to enter it and see the evidence that Christ
had risen (the empty tomb, the linen clothes "lying" and the napkin in
a place by itself). Bearing witness to this will be an essential
factor in the mission which Christ will entrust to them: "You shall be
My witnesses in Jerusalem...and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8; cf.
Acts 2:32).

John, who reached the tomb first (perhaps because he was the younger),
did not go in, out of deference to Peter. This is an indication that
Peter was already regarded as leader of the Apostles.

5-7. The words the Evangelist uses to describe what Peter and he saw in
the empty tomb convey with vivid realism the impression it made on
them, etching on their memory details which at first sight seem
irrelevant. The whole scene inside the tomb in some way caused them to
intuit that the Lord had risen. Some of the words contained in the
account need further explanation, so terse is the translation.

"The linen clothes lying there": the Greek participle translated as
"lying there" seems to indicate that the clothes were flattened,
deflated, as if they were emptied when the body of Jesus rose and
disappeared--as if it had come out of the clothes and bandages without
their being unrolled, passing right through them (just as later He
entered the Cenacle when the doors were shut). This would explain the
clothes being "fallen", "flat" "lying", which is how the Greek
literally translates, after Jesus' body--which had filled them--left
them. One can readily understand how this would amaze a witness, how
unforgettable the scene would be.

"The napkin...rolled up in a place by itself": the first point to note
is that the napkin, which had been wrapped round the head, was not on
top of the clothes, but placed on one side. The second, even more
surprising thing is that, like the clothes, it was still rolled up but,
unlike the clothes, it still had a certain volume, like a container,
possibly due to the stiffness given it by the ointments: this is what
the Greek participle, here translated as "rolled", seems to indicate.

From these details concerning the empty tomb one deduces that Jesus'
body must have risen in a heavenly manner, that is, in a way which
transcended the laws of nature. It was not only a matter of the body
being reanimated as happened, for example, in the case of Lazarus, who
had to be unbound before he could walk (cf. John 11:44).

8-10. As Mary Magdalene had told them, the Lord was not in the tomb;
but the two Apostles realized that there was no question of any
robbery, which was what she thought had happened, because they saw the
special way the clothes and napkin were; they know began to understand
what the Master had so often told them about His death and resurrection
(cf. Matthew 16:21; Mark 8:31; Luke 9:22; etc....)

The empty tomb and the other facts were perceptible to the senses; but
the resurrection, even though it had effects that could be tested by
experience, requires faith if it is to be accepted. Christ's
resurrection is a real, historic fact: His body and soul were
re-united. But since His was a glorious resurrection unlike Lazarus',
far beyond our capacity in this life to understand what happened, and
outside the scope of sense experience, a special gift of God is
required--the gift of faith--to know and accept as a certainty this
fact which, while it is historical, is also supernatural. Therefore,
St. Thomas Aquinas can say that "the individual arguments taken alone
are not sufficient proof of Christ's resurrection, but taken together,
in a cumulative way, they manifest it perfectly. Particularly
important in this regard are the spiritual proofs (cf. specially Luke
24:25-27), the angelic testimony (cf. Luke 24:4-7) and Christ's own
post-resurrection word confirmed by miracles (cf. John 3:13; Matthew
16:21; 17:22; 20:18)" (St. Thomas Aquinas, "Summa Theologiae", III, q.
55, a. 6 ad 1).

In addition to Christ's predictions about His passion, death and
resurrection (cf. John 2:19; Matthew 16:21; Mark 9:31; Luke 9:22), the
Old Testament also foretells the glorious victory of the Messiah and,
in some way, His resurrection (cf. Psalm 16:9; Isaiah 52:13; Hosea
6:2). The Apostles begin to grasp the true meaning of Sacred Scripture
after the resurrection, particularly once they receive the Holy Spirit,
who fully enlightens their minds to understand the content of the Word
of God. It is easy to imagine the surprise and elation they all feel
when Peter and John tell them what they have seen in the tomb.