Jesus appears to His disciples on the Sea of Tiberias in the pre-dawn morning mist (beginning of chapter 21). They pull out nets full of fish, although they have not caught anything before, working all night. An attentive reader of the Gospel remembers that this has already been told in the New Testament, in the 5th chapter of the Gospel of Luke. There this scene is described in almost every detail: the disciples, together with the Risen One, experience what they already experienced when they followed Jesus during His lifetime. And through this scene at the beginning of chapter 21, we also become participants in the Gospel events. For just as the disciples experienced the miraculous fishing for the second time, together with the Resurrected One, so we together with Him for the second, third, and hundredth time experience what is described in the Gospel. It can be said of these verses: this is the door through which one can enter into the Gospel, in order to live no longer outside, but inside it.

The resurrected Savior is waiting for his disciples on the shore of the lake. He said to them, "Come and take this food." "And none of the disciples dared to ask Him, 'Who art thou?' knowing that it is the Lord" (John 21:12). And He takes bread and gives it to them. Eucharist. Just as in the Gospel of Luke the Resurrected One celebrates the Eucharistic meal together with His two disciples at Emmaus (chapter 24), in the 21st chapter of the Gospel of John, the Resurrected One celebrates it on the shore of Lake Tiberias together with the Galilean fishermen.

Thus Jesus appeared to His disciples for the third time. And He appears to us countless times in the sacrament of the Eucharist. Jesus' question to Peter, "Do you love me more than they do?" begins Jesus' final dialogue with Peter. With this dialogue, in fact, the narrative of the Gospel of John ends. Attention should be paid to the last two verses of the 21st chapter: "This disciple also testifies to this, and wrote this." This is a kind of second epilogue written on behalf of the evangelist. And then come the words: "And we know that his testimony is true." This (third!) epilogue was written by the community, the disciples, or the Church. The verb oidamen – "we know", to which commentators usually pay little attention, has a very deep meaning. This is a kind of seal that is put on a document and gives this document significance and power. Together with the first disciples of Jesus, we join the Oidamen in this, because if we read the Gospel of John to the end and experience it, we not only have an idea of what Jesus said and taught—and what He continues to teach us—but we know it from our own experience. This knowledge differs from the knowledge of mathematics, physics, biology, etc., in that knowledge in the field of any science can be transferred, it can be taught. The knowledge that we receive in the process of our spiritual life, during our stay with Christ, comes only through personal experience and is simply not perceived from someone else's words.

Chapter 3.

"THERE IS SOMEONE STANDING AMONG YOU"

The prologue of the Fourth Gospel, that is, the first eighteen verses of its first part, is a hymn almost unrelated to the main text, so to speak, a theological synopsis of the entire Gospel, based on the mention of its main themes and fundamentally important points. The text itself begins with the story of John the Baptist. In this sense, the Gospel of John is no different from the three previous ones, where the beginning of Jesus' preaching is also necessarily preceded by an account of how John began his preaching.

In verse 19 of the first chapter it says: "And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, 'Who are you?' And at the beginning of the second chapter, every reader will probably pay attention to the words "on the third day": "On the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee..." Let's try to understand what place this "third day" occupies here. Verse 29 says, "The next day John saw Jesus coming to him..." — this refers to the day that came after Jesus was baptized by John in the waters of the Jordan. In verse 35 it is repeated again: "The next day John stood again and two of his disciples. And when he saw Jesus coming, he said, Behold the Lamb of God." Verse 41, if we turn not to the Greek, but, say, to the Syriac or the old (made by the predecessors of Blessed Jerome) Latin translations, contains the same formula – "the next day", "in the morning" ("He [Andrew. — G.C.]) the first finds his brother Simon and says to him, "We have found the Messiah, which means, Christ." In verse 43, too, "The next day Jesus wanted to go into Galilee"... So, four days had passed since the day John saw the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus in the form of a dove.

And then it is said (at the beginning of the second chapter): "On the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee." This story ends with the words: "Thus began the miracles in Cana of Galilee" (John 2:11). If you count how many days are covered by this story, you get seven days, or a week. And at once another biblical text comes to mind, which opens with the same words: "In the beginning (Heb. Gets pregnant. — G.C.) God created the heavens and the earth." This is the first chapter of the book of Genesis, which tells the story of creation, which fits into seven days. The Gospel of John, which also opens with the words: "In the beginning...", tells first of all about the history of the renewal of all creation, the beginning of this renewal also fits into seven days. There is a clear parallel between the book of Genesis with its seven days of creation and the fourth Gospel, which from the first page gives Jesus' mission biblical significance.

It was very important for the first generations of Christians to realize and pass on to the younger generations that with the mission of Jesus really begins the renewal of all creation, and not just the creation of a new religion. At the time of Jesus, the ancient religions which attracted a greater or lesser number of people were far from being a thing of the past. Christianity has not become one of these religions. It was born as something fundamentally new. First of all, due to the fact that in each of the religions the teacher of the law addresses his adherents – to those who listen to him, recognize him, take into account his opinion, while here something completely different happens: Christ comes to everyone at once and for everyone. As one modern catechism says, "A man has not yet been born, nor ever will be, for whom Christ did not die."

Christ dies for all, performs His ministry for all, and is resurrected for the salvation of all. Just as in Adam God creates, calls to life, brings all mankind out of non-existence, so in Christ begins the renewal of all mankind, and not only of those who already consciously consider themselves Christians or want to be Christians. A renewal that begins during these seven days and whose story is set forth in the first two pages of the Gospel of John. If we compare the history of the world before Christ with what happened to mankind during the last two thousand years, we can easily see that this is a different history, that the human race as a whole has become different, not the same as it was before Christ.

A question arises that is not always talked about. We are amazed at the cruelty of our century. But it has always been like this. In all ages, people have said that terrible times have come, and the past has always been seen from today as wonderful, blissful and beautiful, a kind of forever lost golden age. And in reality? In fact, the past, with its epidemics, with its cruelty and helplessness of man in the face of the elements, is always more terrible than the present. For example, Aristotle, speaking about the natural equality of all people, somehow simply did not include slaves among them, and Jesus spoke specifically about slaves as people and in general was heard...

The community that Dante first spoke of in the Monarchy, calling it in Latin the expression univer-sitas humana or omne genus humanum ("the whole human race"), that is, "humanity" as a whole, was simply impossible before Jesus. When Dante first used this expression, he most likely borrowed it from the Latin translation of the Greek hymn in honor of the Mother of God, "In Thee rejoices, O Blessed One, every creature, the angelic assembly and the human race..." However, the poet added the word omne ("whole") to the expression genus humanum, brilliantly emphasizing that we humans become humanity only when we include in our community all the people who live on Earth, without any exception. It is with this that his experiences are connected, which Dante tells us about in the XIX canto of Paradise. Man was born on the banks of the Indus, lived without sin (sanza peccato), but died unbaptized. Is it fair that he will be punished? – asks the poet and gives the answer himself, stating that

molti gridan: Cristo, Cristo,