The hill outside Jerusalem was nearly empty.

The crowds who had cheered Jesus a week earlier were gone.

Most of his closest friends had run.

But at the foot of the cross, a handful of people refused to leave.

His mother was there.

A few faithful women were there.

And one young man stood beside them, watching his teacher die.

From the cross, Jesus looked down at his mother and at the disciple he loved.

Woman, behold your son.

Then to the disciple: Behold your mother.

Christian tradition has long identified that disciple as St. John the Apostle.

He was the one who stayed.

A Fisherman's Son

John grew up on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

He was the son of Zebedee and the brother of James, and the family worked the fishing boats alongside Simon Peter and Andrew.

The Gospels tell us that Zebedee's business had hired men, so John's family was likely not poor.

One day Jesus walked along the shore, saw the brothers mending their nets, and called them.

They left the boat and their father behind and followed him.

John was probably quite young, and tradition has long remembered him as the youngest of the Twelve.

The Sons of Thunder

If you imagine John as gentle and quiet from the start, the Gospels have a surprise for you.

Jesus gave John and James a nickname.

He called them Boanerges, which the Gospel of Mark translates as sons of thunder.

They earned it.

When a Samaritan village refused to welcome Jesus, the brothers asked whether they should call down fire from heaven to destroy it.

Jesus turned and rebuked them.

Another time, John tried to stop a man who was casting out demons in Jesus' name, simply because the man was not part of their group.

And the brothers, with their mother, asked Jesus for the seats of honor at his right and left in his kingdom.

The other apostles were furious.

This was a young man with a temper, an ambition and a lot to learn.

The Inner Circle

Still, Jesus kept John close.

Along with Peter and James, he was one of three disciples Jesus brought into the most important moments of his ministry.

He was there when Jesus raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead.

He was there on the mountain when Jesus was transfigured in dazzling light, with Moses and Elijah beside him.

He was there in the garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus fell on his face in agony and prayed for the cup to pass.

At the Last Supper, the Gospel of John describes the beloved disciple reclining right next to Jesus, leaning back against his chest.

Artists have painted that image for centuries.

The thunder was slowly being softened by closeness to the heart of Christ.

At the Cross and the Empty Tomb

When Jesus was arrested, the disciples scattered.

But the Gospel of John places the beloved disciple at the foot of the cross on Good Friday.

After Jesus entrusted his mother to him, the Gospel says that from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

Catholics have always seen in that moment a gift to the whole Church.

Mary was given as mother to every beloved disciple who would follow.

Three days later, on Easter morning, Mary Magdalene came running with news that the tomb was empty.

Peter and the beloved disciple raced to see.

The Gospel lets us know, with a touch of humor, that the younger man ran faster and got there first.

He waited for Peter to go in.

Then he entered, saw the burial cloths lying there, and believed.

A Pillar of the Early Church

After Pentecost, John appears beside Peter in the Acts of the Apostles.

Together they healed a lame man at the Temple gate.

Together they were arrested and hauled before the religious authorities.

Together they refused to stop preaching about Jesus.

St. Paul later called John one of the pillars of the Church in Jerusalem.

His brother James became the first of the Twelve to die for Christ, executed by King Herod Agrippa.

John would live a very long life.

Exile on Patmos

Early Christian tradition places John's later ministry in the city of Ephesus, in what is now western Turkey.

The Book of Revelation opens with its author, named John, saying he was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and his testimony to Jesus.

Tradition holds that the apostle was exiled there during a time of persecution.

There, the book says, he received a vision of heaven, of the Lamb who was slain and of the new Jerusalem coming down from God.

Another ancient tradition, recorded by the early writer Tertullian, claims John was once thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil in Rome and emerged unharmed.

Whether every detail of these stories is historical, they show how deeply the early Church revered him.

The Apostle of Love

The Church has traditionally credited John with the fourth Gospel, three New Testament letters and the Book of Revelation, though scholars continue to debate questions of authorship.

His Gospel begins not in Bethlehem but in eternity.

In the beginning was the Word.

And his first letter contains three of the most famous words in all of Scripture.

God is love.

The son of thunder had become the apostle of love.

A beloved story preserved by St. Jerome says that when John was very old, he had to be carried into the gatherings of believers.

He no longer gave long sermons.

He simply urged his little children to love one another, again and again.

When people asked why he always said the same thing, he answered that it was the Lord's command, and if it was done, it was enough.

The One Who Outlived Them All

Tradition holds that John was the only one of the Twelve who did not die a martyr's death.

He is believed to have died peacefully in Ephesus, around the end of the first century.

His feast is celebrated on December 27, just after Christmas.

He is often pictured with an eagle, a symbol of his Gospel soaring to the heights of heaven.

John's life is proof that holiness does not mean being born calm.

It means staying close to Jesus long enough to be changed.

A young man with a temper rested his head on the heart of Christ.

And he spent the rest of his life telling the world what he had heard there.

Your turn: Has staying close to Jesus softened something hard in your own heart? Share your story in the comments below.

Photo by K on Pexels