Today is the third Sunday of Easter.
In today’s Gospel reading we hear about Jesus’ threefold questioning of Peter. This questioning involves Jesus asking Peter if he loves Him (Jesus). The first two times he asks the original Greek uses the word we translate as Agape love, that self giving love we see in Jesus on the cross. Then Jesus changes it to the type of love we translate as Philio, or brotherly love. Jesus must have detected Peter was holding back when he answered the first two times so he ratcheted down the level of love He asked Peter to agree to.
It’s also telling that after each yes from Peter Jesus told him to do something. We need to pay attention to that. It isn’t enough to just say we love Jesus; we have to act on that love as well.
This is all related to our commitment and willingness to invest time, talent, and treasure to back up our faith. Where Connie and I live we have a very active and growing church that needs feeding, so to speak, in order to meet the corporal and spiritual needs of the people. There’s a lot of recruitment or people to pay for and do the work that needs to be done to build the kingdom in our little corner of Alabama.
As we continue to make our way through Easter and approach Pentecost it’s a good time to ask ourselves how we’re doing. In last Sunday’s Gospel Jesus said “As the Father has sent Me, so I send you.” But send us to what? I think today’s Gospel helps answer that question. If we love Jesus we must participate in the lamb and sheep feeding to borrow His words. That feeding takes a lot of different forms but we need to be a part of the answer to that call to love and then act.
The conclave to choose a new pope starts Wednesday so we will likely have a new pope by the time you hear from me next weekend. Please continue to pray that we get the pope our Church needs at this time in our history.
That’s it for now. Thanks for reading.
I hope you have a great week.
Peace, Bob
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