The Significance of Love [Third Sunday of Easter]

JESUS ASKS PETER, "DO YOU LOVE ME?"
Image from deacondan.com via google.com

"Simon, son of John, do you love me?"

- John 21: 15, 16, 17 

According to the online Catholic Encyclopedia, love, also called charity, is a divinely infused habit, inclining the human will to cherish God for his own sake above all things, and man for the sake of God. According to the Apostle Paul, love or charity is the greatest of all, much more than faith and hope [see 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13].

When asked by a teacher of the Law about what is the greatest among the commandments, the Lord Jesus enumerated only two, love of God [see Matthew 22: 37 -38] and love of neighbor [see Matthew 22:39] commenting further that the Law and the Prophets hang upon these two [see Matthew 22:40]. During the Last Supper, the Lord gave to His Apostles the command to love one another [see John 13: 34-35; 15: 12-17].

Simon Peter had denied his relations to the Lord during the trial of Jesus. This time, the Lord himself reconciles Peter to Him by asking him three times also if he loves Him. We know that Peter has been entrusted with the key, the symbol of authority, of being the foundation of the new Israel, the Church, and as such we consider him to be the first Pope. But before Jesus goes back to the Father he wanted assurance that He will be leaving the Church upon the shoulders of someone who did not only received the appointment of being the Prince of the Apostles and the first Pope as a job, but also upon the hands of someone who loves Him, that is, someone who is also wiling to die for Him, in accordance with what He told them during the Last Supper, 

"There is no greater love than to lay one's life for one's friend" [John 15:13].

hence someone who will take respond to the call to steer the Church out of love not out of mere duty. The Lord showed how much He loved them, and us, by dying upon the cross. Now Peter has to commit himself to the Lord that same love if he really accepts the call to become the first Pope; if he really is the Lord's friend.

"Faith, hope and love: these three remain. But the greatest of these is love," writes the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians [1 Corinthians 13:13]. For faith is already useless when we see God face to face; and hope is unnecessary when we have already finished our pilgrimage upon this earth and reach heaven. But love truly remains forever because it is the unquenchable fire that keeps burning in our hearts ever since God created us so that we may seek Him, and will sustain our union with Him for all eternity.

"Do you love me?" is a question which each one of us ought to answer plainly, simply and humbly. We should ask ourselves, "Do we love God? Do we love the Father? Do we love the Lord Jesus Christ? Do we love the Holy Spirit? Do we love the Church?" Of course we ought to ask if we love the Church for the Church is the Body of Christ and declaring our love for Christ our Lord and yet denying that the Church deserves the same love, is a big lie!

And of course, saying our "Yes!" does not end at the punctuation mark. The Lord told Peter, "Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep" [see John 21: 15,16,17]. Jesus tells us that when the King comes to Judge, He will separate the sheep from the goats, the good people and the bad ones, by evaluating them according to how they expressed their love for Him through the services they rendered to the least of His brethren [see Matthew 25: 31-46]. The Spanish mystic, St John of the Cross, had said, "In the evening of our life we will be judged in love." 

What the Lord told Peter was about His great role and responsibility over His flock. But it was also something that we ought to meditate upon as our share in the responsibility of being members of the big family of God and of the Lord's body, the Church. For we have been admonished to wash each other feet [see John 13:14] and to love another [see John 13: 34-35; 15: 12-17] and not be like Cain, who even if he was guilty, still had the temerity to respond to God when asked about Abel, whom he killed, "Am I my brother's keeper?" [see Genesis 4:9]. By God's love, each of us is a keeper of each other. 

As friends of the Lord, we are continually asked the question, "Do you love me?" when we encounter challenges and trials. Our commitment of sincere love for the Lord will be shown through the manner by which we react to and decide upon even through those very small and seemingly trivial things each moment of our lives. For there are Christians who are given the chance to show their love for God through martyrdom and the shedding of their blood; but for the majority of us, we are called to manifest our holiness even in the smallest things that we encounter in our lives and in the most ordinary ways. Most of the time, by waiting to express our love through great things, we disregard those small things by which we can also and probably even in a far greater way truly express the love we have for God.

This Sunday and this coming week, let us focus our attention on meditating about loving and on actually loving God and the Lord Jesus Christ in every simple way that we can.