In our gospel for today, we see the Lord Jesus appearing once again after His Resurrection. This time He's by the Sea of Tiberias. The apostles, still recovering from His crucifixion, are fishing all night, and caught nothing. Then at dawn, there's our Lord at the shore asking if they caught anything. When he finds out they haven't, he gives the instruction to cast the net off the right side, and they catch a sizable number of fish. Then they realize it was the Lord.
Peter, anxious to be with Jesus, couldn't wait for the boat to get to shore to see our Lord, jumps into the water and swims to Jesus. The relief of seeing Jesus after the ordeal of seeing him crucified, must have been great for Peter.
After breakfast, Jesus asks Peter, not once but three times, do you love me? Peter responds that he does. After the third question of "Do you love me?" Peter says, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” John 21:17 Then Jesus instruct Peter to feed His sheep. Peter was hurt by the questions since it reminded him that he denied our Lord three times during the trial and death of Jesus.
Our Lord will go onto inform Peter that he will face death as a result of his faith in the Risen Lord.
Peter was able to be reconciled to the Lord by his three professions of love for the Lord. He would go on to proclaim the Risen Lord to all those he would meet, and ultimately face death for this faith in Christ.
We, too, are sinful and cowardly at times, like Peter on that Good Friday. There are times when we deny Christ by not speaking about Him as we should to others. We are called by our Christian vocation to bring Christ to others in our lives, even when it seems difficult to do.
We bring Christ into the world by the way we live, by how we treat others and by our love for all those in our lives. We are called to speak the truth of the Risen Christ to all, even when others aren't opened to this truth. But we are to do it in love and charity.
Let us, like Peter, say to Jesus, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you!
DEACON TOM,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your reflection on today's Gospel Reading.
You state that, "Peter was hurt by the questions posed to him by the Lord, since it reminded him that he denied our Lord three times during the trial and death of Jesus." Although, it is not stated as such, I agree with you that it is an accurate assumption, due to the fact that after every response from Peter, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you!", Jesus commanded Peter the 3 tasks to: "Feed my lambs.", Tend my sheep.", and "Feed my sheep." I am sure that after Peter's recapitulation on these 3 commands of the Lord, "Peter (rightly) considered himself to be reconciled to the Lord by his three professions of love for the Lord.", as you state.
You also state, "Our Lord will go on to inform Peter that he will face death as a result of his faith in the Risen Lord." Although, I find that he did not directly informed Peter about the final reason of his death, it is definitely implied, as He told Peter, "Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go."
I wonder whether at that moment Peter realized that, "He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God." Maybe not at that moment, but, maybe later in his life or at his moment of death. One thing that Peter surely accomplished was as you stated, "He would go on to proclaim the Risen Lord to all those he would meet, and ultimately face death for this faith in Christ.", after the Lord's final command to him, "Follow me."
Your final statement, couldn't be more accurate: "We bring Christ into the world by the way we live, by how we treat others and by our love for all those in our lives. We are called to speak the truth of the Risen Christ to all, even when others aren't opened to this truth. But we are to do it in love and charity." AMEN!
In Christ Jesus, Nilda V.