Yes, Lord you know that I love you!

 

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Memorial of Saint Philip Neri, Priest | USCCB

We hear in our gospel today one of the many appearances of the Lord between His Resurrection on Easter Sunday and His Ascension into heaven. During this intimate moment with Simon Peter, the Lord asks him three times, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” This three-fold question by the Lord corresponds to the 3 denials Peter made between Holy Thursday and Good Friday. Peter greatly regretted denying Jesus as he did. But Peter was scared and out of human weakness, he did what he promised Jesus he would not do: Peter denied Jesus three times.

The Lord asking Peter three times if he loved him reminded Peter of his failure to keep his promise to Jesus that he would never deny Jesus. But Jesus, judging Peter’s heart, knew that Peter did indeed love him, and just walked Peter through the healing process of his denying Him to that of Faith in the Risen Lord. It was then that the Lord knew that Peter could be trusted to be the leader of the Apostles.

On Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came upon Peter and the Apostles, along with Mary, in the upper room, they went from being frightened men to being strong defenders of the faith, proclaiming that Jesus Christ died on Good Friday for our sins, and rose on Easter Sunday, and ascended into heaven. These truths of faith in Jesus Christ were proclaimed by Peter and the Apostles in Jerusalem and all throughout the world. They were no longer afraid to proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord. All the apostles, except for John, all died as martyrs for their faith in Jesus Christ.

After Peter told Jesus the third time that he loved Him, the Lord said to 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 some one will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Scripture indicates that this was signifying what kind of death Peter would die. Peter went from a fearful man on Holy Thursday, denying Jesus three times, to someone willing to die for this gift of faith in the Risen Lord. According to ancient and well-known tradition, Peter, when he was condemned to death in Rome, requested to be crucified upside-down because he did not believe that a man is worthy to be killed in the same manner as Jesus.

We are all called to be witnesses of Jesus in our lives. We are never to deny that we are followers of Him. We are to be bold in our faith in Him and our relationship with the Risen Lord. We are to be His witnesses by how we live out our lives by loving God and loving one another. By doing so, we, like Peter, will be saying to Jesus, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”