1.Acts
5:27-32.40b-41
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2. Rv5:11-14
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Gospel:
Jn21:1-19
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" Do we love Jesus?"
Many times from my
personal experience, I have come into realization that a rose flower is said to
be a perfect symbol of romance. It lasts only for days. It withers and fades
away. What remains are the thorns, the symbol of sufferings. We can truly love if
we can behold not the rose but the thorns. Let profess our love for Christ. We
are aware of the thorns that will come our way and yet, hopeful that roses will
bloom in the everlasting spring.
Today's gospel
describes the appearance of the Risen Lord to His seven disciples: After the
disciples were with Jesus for several years with excitement and joy until that
crucifixion, the disciples returned to their formal occupation. May be the
disappointed and discouraged, Peter and the other six apostles got into their
boat to go fishing but caught nothing until Jesus, at day break, told them to
cast their net once again and haul in a great number of fish. The disciples
join the Risen Lord for the breakfast and after the meal Jesus asked Peter, for
three times, how much he loves Him. Peter affirmed his love for Jesus.
We can also ask
ourselves this question that why did Jesus ask Peter three times? I think there
was a reason for that. Jesus asked Peter three times if Peter really loved Him.
It was three times that Peter denied Jesus during His moment of agony, and
passion, and it was three times that the Risen Lord gave him the chance to
affirm his love. Jesus in His gracious forgiveness, gave Peter the chance to
wipe out the memory of the threefold denial by threefold declaration of love.
Moreover, Peter is given the chance to make/ amend his moral ways and start
over again. A threefold profession of love undid the triple denial. Peter no
longer boasted that he loved more than the other did.
In English, when Jesus
asks " Do you love me?" it all sounds right. But in Greek we find
that Peter is not exactly responding to the very question Jesus is asking him.
In the Greek Bible, there are three words for the word "love." There
is eros,
which means sensual or erotic love, the kind the kind of love that lies in
senses and the emotions. Then there is philia, meaning love of the
likeable, the admiration and devotion we have for a worthy person or thing.
Likeable love dwells in the mind that judges the object of love worthy of it.
Finally there is agape, which means self-sacrificing and unconditional love,
even for a person who may not deserve it and when there is nothing tangible to
be gained. Agape love is in the will.
In our worship services
we often sing hymns that profess our love for Jesus. Think of " O, How I
love Jesus" or " O, the Love of the Lord is the Essence." Peter
challenges us today to realize that hymns like these only tell half of the
story. The other half is that there is a part of us that does not love God,
that denies the Lord when our life, our future or our well-being is at stake.
Peter's example invites us to bring this negative side of us to God for
healing. So today let us join Peter in his confession: " I love you, Lord;
help my lack of love."
For us today Jesus is
telling us that we are supposed to love just like that, the agape love, even to
the point of giving our lives in love for others. In St. John's gospel, during
the last Supper, the night before he gives his life for us, Jesus tells us,
" remain in me." We remain in Jesus by being faithful to Him and be
people of prayer. Today's gospel passage speaks about remaining in Jesus by
being people of love. In some other parts of John's gospel, Jesus says: "
As the Father loves me, so I love you. Remain in my love. This is my
commandment: Love one another as I love you. Lay down your life in love for
your friends."
Jesus says to Peter:
" Feed my lambs." naturally a lamb is an animal that is delicate and
defenseless and so it has to be fed and cared for like a baby like by giving
food and milk in order for it to grow and becomes strong. In other words, Jesus
wants us to love the concrete people around us, our spouses, children, parents,
neighbors, relatives, co-workers and everyone in town; to be patient, kind, and nonviolent with the
people in our day today lives, and love them and keep on loving them, no matter
what, no matter how difficult. To love everyone we meet in our lives is the
essential Christian calling.
Jesus says, "Tend
my sheep." When a lamb becomes a sheep, it can graze for food and
so what the shepherd has to do is to tend the sheep and see to it that it does
not go astray from the group. In other words, following Jesus, Jesus wants us
to be a community of love, not just individual persons of interpersonal love
but a people of communal love, a community, a parish, a town of great
love. What would take for us to become a
community of love as God wants? I think it means that as a community we have to
stop any hostility, gossip, resentment, and bitterness we may have toward
anyone else in our daily living.
From the readings
today, we also learn how to become a good leader. The trait of a good leader is
that of being a servant. A Japanese industrialist was asked what Americans most
need to know in order to become more successful in business. The man said:
" Business is a form of servant hood. Americans must learn to serve."
A good leader is the servant because he attends to another; he cares for the
needs of others; he sacrifices for another to achieve. For us too, we should also
care for the needs of others.
Let me end my sharing
with this little story that I read from a priest's homily. There is one man
known by name Gandhi, one day Gandhi stepped aboard a train, one of his shoes
slipped off and landed on the track. He was unable to retrieve it as the train
was moving. To the amazement of his companions, Gandhi calmly took off his
other shoe and threw it back along the track to land close to the first. Asked
by a fellow passenger why he did so, Gandhi smiled: " The poor man who
will find the shoe lying on the track," he replied, " will now have a
pair he can use."
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