A Shrine in Turkey

Here are my pictures of the nave of a very large church which an earthquake leveled to ruins. It is near the ancient city of Ephesus, in what was the Roman province of Asia Minor, present day Turkey. While this church is a far cry from St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, it is similar in this aspect: it houses the mortal remains of an apostle of Jesus Christ. Since his death in 100 AD, it has been known as the Basilica of St. John the Apostle. The walls and pillars which are seen standing are restoration work.

St. John took Our Lady into his own. He participated in the Council of Jerusalem in AD 54. He is believed to have been boiled in oil in Rome, without ill effect. Later, he was exiled to the Greek island of Patmos. Finally, he died of old age, but not before writing a gospel of Jesus Christ, three letters to the faithful, and the Apocalypse. The humility and the wisdom which comes from old age led the early believers to call him “St. John the Theologian”.

So elevated a life, and yet so humble a grave. But, somehow the humility of his resting place and the simplicity of his teaching are consonant. In his first letter he says:

"And these things we write to you, that you may rejoice, and your joy may be full. And this is the declaration which we have heard from him, and declare unto you: That God is light, and in him there is no darkness. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he also is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, these things I write to you , that you may not sin. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. And by this we know that we have known him, if we keep his commandments," (John 1:4 – 2:3).

This apostle was buried underneath an altar (or, an altar was built above his grave) and Mass was celebrated there. How many indirect references to the Holy Mass can you find in the above passage?