Homecoming – St. John Evangelist Votive October 30, 2026
Fr. Alexander Albert St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville
Simon Peter, Mary Magdalen, and John the Evangelist. These are the three central figures in today’s Gospel. St. Peter is the patron of the whole Catholic Church, St. Mary Magdalene the patron saint of the parish that belongs to the Church, and St. John the Evangelist the patron of the school that belongs to the parish. Each offers an important lesson. Each of them represents something we need to take to heart if we want this homecoming to help us get to our true home in heaven. What three things do they represent? Faith, Hope, and Love. Simon Peter represents faith, Mary Magdalen hope, and John the Evangelist love.
We begin, surprisingly, with hope and St. Mary Magdalen. Hope is not wishful thinking. It is not simple desire. It is the choice to anticipate and look forward to something you do not yet have and cannot yet see but nonetheless is real enough to motivate your decisions. Mary Magdalen isn’t even sure what she’s hoping for. She just knows that Jesus Christ is too good for this to be the end. The practice of following him and listening to him – what she has heard, seen, and touched – tells her there must be more. So, as hope so often does, she goes to be at the tomb. She goes to anticipate… something. She is not even sure what she expects, she only knows that she needs to be there for it and in the meantime to give attention and effort to the one who has given her hope.
This is why hope is so important. When we don’t know what else to do, it spurs us to look past the darkness of the present and act as best we can. How often were you alumni in a dark place at this school? How often do you current students find yourselves in a dark place and unsure of what comes next? When in the darkness, we have two choices. We can give in and do nothing and accept that we are powerless – despair. To be fair, we often are powerless, but that does not have to mean we do nothing. That is the other choice, do have hope. Hope can acknowledge that we are powerless, but it also knows that being powerless does not stop us from doing something… doing the next right thing available to us, however small. With hope we can admit we are powerless but still act because hope says there is a greater power that will do what we cannot so long as we don’t give up. Jesus would have risen from the dead even if Mary Magdalen did not go to the tomb. Mary Magdalen’s visit did not change the outcome, but it made her present it. In your darkness, reject the choice to despair. Choose hope, which is to say choose to put your trust in something that is powerful even when you are powerless. Let that choice motivate you to take the next right action not because you think it will fix it, but because it expresses your confidence in the one who will right all wrongs in the end.
Next, there is love and St. John the Evangelist. Love is not just warm affection, but the commitment to the good of another. Love is quick, but also patient. When John the Evangelist hears that the body of the one he loves is missing, he runs to the tomb as fast as he can. He is eager, quick to put himself in service to the one he loves, to at least attend to the body even if he can no longer reach the soul of his dearest friend, teacher, and lord. So it should be with us. If we claim to love someone, it should show in a quickness to serve their genuine good and benefit, even when it is costly or difficult for us.
But love is also patient because it knows that some acts of love take time and that giving that time, that not rushing is part of how we love authentically. John the Evangelist is not bragging that he is faster than Simon Peter. He is faster because he is younger but the reason he shares that information is so he can explain what happens when he gets there. He arrives at the tomb first but does not go in. When he sees that it is empty, he waits. Where is his quickness to serve now? He does not know what to do. He rushed to attend to the body of his beloved Lord, but seeing that there is no body he knows he must wait to see what love should do next. Love is patient, so we should be patient. Boys and girls, do not rush the loving relationships you have with each other. Do not push to do things that cannot or should not be done yet. Alumni, how many times have you hurt a loved one or messed up a good thing because you rushed it? The love was genuine, sure, but the lack of patience ended up lessening the good you could have done for the one you love. Love is to will the good of the other, which means it needs to be patient enough to see what is good.
Which brings us finally to St. Peter and faith. Theologically, it is important that you understand that St John the Evangelist waits for Peter because he recognizes Peter’s authority. This is but one passage we use to understand the importance of the papacy. What I am focused on now, however, is the need for the virtue of faith. Only after St Peter goes in and John follows him does it say John “saw and believed.” Our entire first reading is from St. John describing what he saw and heard and touched and believes and wants to share with us. John’s quick love must allow Faith to lead so he knows where to put that love. Only with faith does John’s love shift from seeking a dead body to serving a living Lord.
So it must be with us! Enter to learn Christ, leave to serve Christ. We all of us want to love and so much of our love has a natural direction and force behind it. We often jump at the chance to do things that warm our hearts and express our affection. But Jesus Christ is greater than natural love. If we want to serve Christ, we have to learn him first. We have to enter not just a school, but the tomb of Christ. We have to have the patience of a love that lets faith show it what to do and where to go. Only by entering into the death of Christ – through baptism, through self-denial, through obedience to Christ’s Church – can we gain the faith to serve the living Lord, the eternal king, the resurrected one.
Peter, who represents the authority of the Church to hand on and interpret the deposit of faith, has to lead John into the tomb before John can love correctly. Leo XIV and every pope which connects him back to Peter represents to us the guiding light of a faith which is more than personal. It is personal, but it is also communal. Is that not part of why we love this time so much? That we can experience together what is not available when we’re simply by ourselves?
Notice that St. John says “we proclaim to you” the experiences we had with Jesus but also notice why he proclaims. What does he say the reason for proclaiming? Is it to learn? To have a personal encounter? To be “spiritual but not religious?” So, we proclaim to you “st that you may have fellowship with us; for our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.” Do you get what that means? Fellowship with Jesus Christ comes through fellowship with the apostles. Sharing the faith of the Church, being in communion with them is what makes salvation possible and joy complete.
This is what homecoming is about: connecting to the most fundamental reality that is God himself, the Blessed Trinity. It’s about being united and reunited with the school which unites us to the parish which unites us to the universal church which unites us to God himself. And the lived expression of that is faith, hope, and love.
Have faith; trust the teachings of the Church so lovingly imparted to you by this school and parish. Have hope; make the choice to do whatever good you can even when you are powerless because your hope is rooted in God who is all-powerful. Then, love! Enter to learn Christ, leave to serve Christ. Do not serve the dead world or the empty tomb, but the living Lord who makes ready a place for you to come home.