Readings: Acts 25:13-21; Ps.103; John 21:15-19
Fr.
Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.
LORD,
YOU KNOW EVERYTHING, YOU KNOW I LOVE YOU
The
ups and downs of life have been a great experience and challenge to humanity.
Hence, every day is a new struggle. Life struggles, struggle for survival,
struggle against the manipulation of the evil ones, more challenging is the
struggles of our self, especially our weakness and sinfulness.
These
struggles are evident in the life of the disciples of Jesus. All the time they
were with Jesus they struggled to be like him, to follow his ways and to
understand him and it wasn’t easy. In the cause of these struggles they failed,
denied, forsaken, and sinned against the Lord Jesus despite their love for him.
But this was well predicted by Jesus who warned them to remain steadfast even
in the midst of these struggles.
However,
after all the struggles and falls during his passion and death, Jesus now
needed to strengthen his disciples for the great task ahead before departing
from them. So on the occasion of the Gospel passage today, Jesus said to Peter
the leader of his Apostles: ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these
others do?’ He answered, ‘Yes Lord, you know I love you.’ Jesus said to him,
‘Feed my lambs.’
A
second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He replied,
‘Yes, Lord, you know I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Look after my sheep.’
Then he said to him a third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter
was upset that he asked him the third time, ‘Do you love me? and said, ‘Lord,
you know everything; you know I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep.
Here
we can imagine the disposition of the disciples when seeing the Lord as they
sat together round the fire, eating silently the meal which Jesus had prepared,
and no doubt gazing silently at the Lord’s silence. It must really be a great
moment of tension as to how the oppressive silence was to be broken and how
Peter’s heart must have been troubled when the great silence was broken with
the words: Simon, son of John, do you love me? These three times questions have
a special force in the restoration of him who had three times denied his
Master, and now three times declares his love for Him, and he is three times
restored and entrusted with a great task of feeding his master’s sheep.
From
this gracious act, we see how God through Jesus treats a soul conscious of its
sinfulness and fault; and in Peter’s disposition, we see an illustration of how
a soul, conscious of its sinfulness and fault, should behave before God. This gracious event is very symbolic not just
that the Lord had forgiven Peter for his threefold denial at the moment of his
arrest and suffering, but also that, the Lord restored him again as the leader
of his flocks and the entire Universal Church.
Dear
friends, in our struggles in this life we have done ugly and sinful things that
we are really regretting and don’t want to remember or talk about them just
like St Peter. Wishing we could have changed or avoided them, but there is
nothing we can do about them anymore except to seek restoration. And this
restoration is what Jesus is offering us today as he says: my child do you
still love me? Do you really love me? Do you love me more than all the things
of this passing world?
All we
have to say in consciousness of our faults and sinfulness is: Lord you know
everything, yes I truly love you. And just like St Peter, the Lord Jesus will
not only forgive us, he will restore us to a greater glory. So why struggle in
silence, it’s time to break open the hidden wounds of sin in our hearts, for
the Lord wants to heal and restore us once again so that we can be open and
free to receive the Holy Spirit the promised Paraclete, who will restore us
afresh to God’s greater glory.
LET US
PRAY: Lord God, as we anticipate the coming of the Holy Spirit, we come to you
today conscious of our faults and sinfulness, grant us we pray for your healing
and restoration through Christ our Lord. Amen. Remain blessed.
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