Feast of St. John the Evangelist

"The Evangelist" has a special meaning other than anyone who preaches the good news. Here, it means the author of the gospel. John, one of the Twelve chosen by Jesus, was believed to be the author of the gospel bearing his name. Within this gospel, the name John either refers to John the Baptist (John 1:6), or the father of Simon Peter (John 1:42). However, there is a anonymous figure in the gospel who was never identified by name.
One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was lying close to the breast of Jesus; (John 13:23).
Was he John the Evangelist, the son of Zebedee?
The Church has a long tradition to identify this "beloved disciple" of the Lord as John. Therefore, he leant to the breast of Jesus during the last supper. He also appeared at the crucifixion of Jesus, taking care of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the instruction of the crucified Lord (John 19:26). So, according to Church tradition, Mary spent her last days with John in Ephesus where he wrote 3 epistles to his name. However, some scholars begged to differ. They proposed other candidates. One was Lazarus. Lazarus appears in Luke and John. In Luke, he was a fictitious character appearing in a parable. In John, he was a real person. Therefore, scholars based their speculation on two verses from the gospel of John.
The story of Lazarus appears in John 11. He was the brother of Mary and Martha. Mary was identified as the woman who anointed Jesus (John 11:2). They lived in Bethany. So, this Mary was different from Mary Magdalene who also appears in this gospel. These sisters also appear in the gospel of Luke 10 where they exemplify two different spiritualities.
Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching.
But Martha was distracted with much serving (Luke 10:39b-40a);
It would be interesting for Luke to turn these sisters' brother into a hero in his parable!
Let's return to the "beloved disciple".
It seemed that when Jesus was preaching around the region, these sisters received and waited on him.
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus (John 11:5).
When Jesus came to the tomb of Lazarus, he wept.
So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" (John 11:35).
Scholars would argue that John the Evangelist, has long been actively working along with other apostles in previous chapters. Now, the "beloved disciple" is mentioned only after John 11. Therefore, Lazarus was a highly likely candidate.
In the last chapter of John, the "beloved disciple" is mentioned once more (John 21:20). A few verses below, we found a verse suggesting that the "beloved disciple" and the author of the gospel were two different persons!
This is the disciple who is bearing witness to these things, and who has written these things; and we know that his testimony is true (John 21:24).
So, we either assign John to be the Evangelist or to be the "beloved disciple". The Church tradition cannot have both.

Moreover, the Synoptic gospels do not paint a favourable picture of John. He was hot-tempered and Jesus gave him and his brother James a nickname "Boanerges", that is, sons of thunder (Mark 3:17). Their hot temper was shown once they were not received by a Samaritan village. The brothers asked Jesus if they should command fire from heaven to consume them (Luke 9:54). They (or in Matthew, their mother) were ambitious and wanted to sit at Jesus' left and right in the Kingdom (Mark 10:37). In the Passion story, there was no mention of any apostles staying close to the scene of crucifixion. Only the women were watching from afar and Jesus was buried by a member of the Jewish Council! Therefore, judging from the evidence available from the Synoptic gospels, John would be a very unlikely candidate for this "beloved disciple". So, let John be the Evangelist.
But John has not completely lost. The last chapter of John talks about a fishing experience in the Sea of Tiberias.
Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together (John 21:2).
Notice that this is the only reference of "the sons of Zebedee" in the whole gospel. Moreover, "two others of his disciples" fails to mention the "beloved disciple". So, we can safely assume that if this "beloved disciple" was there, he must be one of the named apostles. In fact, he was present.
That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" (John 21:7a).
It was unlikely that Lazarus, who came from Bethany, was a fisherman. But the sons of Zebedee were.
But how are we to handle John 21:24?
One solution, as many scholars agree, is that this last chapter of John was an appendix written by somebody else. (That is why he wrote "the sons of Zebedee".) John, the Evangelist wrote the first 20 chapters ("who has written these things"). He was the "beloved disciple". He was bearing witness and his testamony was true.
Furthermore, John 20 contains the only record of Peter and the beloved disciple checking the tomb. They worked closely together. In Acts, we read of the close partnership between Peter and John in the Jerusalem church.
Why was John the Evangelist so obscure in the gospel of John? I think it was highly likely that he was once a disciple of John the Baptist before he followed Jesus. In chapter 1, two disciples of the Baptist heard him say "This is the Lamb of God" the second time and followed Jesus (John 1:36-37). One of them was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. The other one was never mentioned. I hypothesize that this other one was John, the son of Zebedee. Throughout his gospel, he reported a lot more information about the Baptist than the Synoptic gospels. Therefore, it is highly likely that he had once been the Baptist's disciple.
This is why studying the Bible is fascinating. There can be a lot of detective work and nobody has yet the final say. So, at the end of the world, we can pose one more question to Jesus. Is it true that John is the "beloved disciple"?

My Lord, we thank You for Your passing on the teaching of love to John. Let us keep his teaching in mind and put it into practice. Amen.