OUR LADY & ST BENEDICT'S

Third Sunday of Easter. Fr Thomas Mannion ponders St Peter’s encounter with the risen Christ.

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In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells Peter, when he first meets him, to cast his net into the deep for a catch. Peter says they had laboured all night and caught nothing but at Jesus’ word they cast out afresh and take a large haul of fish. In today’s Gospel, at the end of the Gospel of John, Peter meets Jesus afresh. Peter does not initially recognise Jesus but after having caught nothing this apparent stranger tells him to cast out and he once again takes a large haul of fish. ‘It is the Lord’, Peter says. Perhaps Peter remembers the first time he met Jesus, when the nets broke because of the haul. Peter recognises Jesus through the sign he works.

In his first meeting he falls to his knees and says: ‘leave me Lord, I am a sinful man’. This conversation is going to be similar. A charcoal fire is lit, a fire like the one in the courtyard where Peter denied Jesus three times. Three times Jesus asks: ‘Do you love me?’; three times Peter replies yes; three times Jesus commands Peter to feed his flock.

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We are not given an insight into Peter’s psychological state, whether even after the various apparitions of Jesus if Peter, whilst full of joy to see the Lord, is still internally wracked by the guilt of his own sins. Perhaps Jesus repeats this question three times not only as a sort of reversal of Peter’s denial but as a positive building up of Peter. Does Jesus, who knows the secret thoughts of others in the Gospels, not know Peter’s love? Of course he does. If Jesus was not convinced of his love, would he entrust the care of his lambs and sheep to him? A consolation for Peter. Peter is not ultimately defined by his weakness, by the imperfections of his love, but by Jesus’ perfect love for him and his love for Jesus which is being perfected over time.

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There is, I think, also an echo of Jesus’ exhortation in John 14:15: If you love me keep my commandments. His commandment here to Peter is for him to refuse to be crippled by his unworthiness and instead to focus on the task at hand. Peter is to reject being riddled with anxieties because of his treachery, focus on your task Peter! Did Peter in his denial fail to love in practice, to show courage? Yes; but did he still in someway love Jesus? If he did not love Jesus at all, why did he follow him? Why was he happy to see him risen? Why did he run to the tomb? Yes, he loved him but now his love was to be perfected.

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Jesus is in this moment loving Peter, reassuring him. His story is not finished and nor is ours.

Do you love me? Jesus asks us. The most important question of Jesus.

We, like Peter, may recognise Jesus in his signs and yet know our love is still being perfected. By God’s grace we will be perfected! We may not be asked to shed our blood for him like Peter, but we can, in our own way, feed his lambs and feed his sheep. In our acts of service our love will be perfected, and we will give our all for him.

Readings: Acts 5:27-32,40-41 | Apocalypse 5:11-14 | John 21:1-19