Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 21, 15-19
After Jesus had revealed himself to his disciples and eaten breakfast with them,
he said to Simon Peter,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
He then said to Simon Peter a second time,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
He said to him, “Tend my sheep.”
He said to him the third time,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time,
“Do you love me?” and he said to him,
“Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.
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.”
He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.
And when he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.”
Feed my sheep!
- He said to Simon. According to St. Augustine, Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved him, because Peter had denied him three times. God always gives you the opportunity to change, but this implies humility on your part and accepting that you’ve made a mistake. Peter may have tried to avoid Jesus seeing him, but Jesus always takes the first step and puts things right. Don’t hide from the mistakes you’ve made, accept them. Don’t distance yourself from the people you’ve hurt, ask them for forgiveness and make amends. Don’t avoid looking at them, look them in the eye and be grateful. We have all been or still are like Peter, but the beauty of it is that God always gives a new opportunity.
- You know I love you. When following Jesus, the essential thing is to love him and that’s how you can do things for others and help them. The key to helping people and doing good deeds is your love of God. To “feed and tend” does not only mean doing social work; it means loving God and loving others. This spirituality will lead you to give humanitarian and spiritual help, integral help, out of your love of God, which will allow you to express this love to every person you come into contact with.
- Old man. The story goes that when Peter was being hunted by Nero to kill him, the Christians hid him and helped him to escape. Until one day Jesus appeared to Peter in a garden and asked him, “Where are you going?”. Peter remembered the events that we are meditating on today. What Jesus is teaching us is not to run away from reality, but to face it. Don’t escape what Christian life involves; rather, embrace it in its entirety. Our faith continues to be strengthened in the Vatican today, because the place where this happened is in what is now St. Peter’s Basilica. This reminds the Church that no matter how much they persecute us or attack us, we are here to face the situation because we take responsibility. In your life, face every situation knowing that God is with you.
Remember that something good is on the way!
God bless you and be with you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
