Feed my Sheep

“When a maid saw him (Peter) seated in the light, she looked intently at him and said, ‘This man too was with him.’  But he denied it saying, ‘Woman, I do not know him.’ A short while later someone else saw him and said ‘ You too are one of them.’ but Peter answered, ‘My friend, I am not.’   About an hour later, still another insisted, ‘Assuredly, this man too was with him, for he is also a Galilean.’ But Peter said, ‘My friend, I do not know what you are talking about.’” (Excerpt from Luke Chapter 22)

These are the last words we hear from Peter before Jesus’ crucifixion.  The man who was chosen by Christ to be the head of the Apostles and the first pope, in the hour Jesus needed him most, repeatedly denied knowing him.  This is the man whom Jesus said He would build His Church upon and he just lied and ran away when things got too hard.  How many times have we denied Christ when it became challenging or too inconvenient? 

But do not despair, there is hope!  This weekend we hear this exchange between Jesus and 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.’  Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’  Jesus said to him a third time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was distressed that Jesus 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.’” (John 21)

Christ, in his infinite love and mercy, gave Peter a chance at forgiveness and redemption.  Each time Peter denied Jesus before his crucifixion, and each time we deny Christ with our words and actions, we are saying, “Jesus I don’t love you.”  

Jesus, by asking Peter, “Do you love me?” three times gives Peter a 2^nd chance, a chance to change his answers from, “No Jesus I don’t love you,” to “Yes Lord, you know that I love you.”  And through that second chance, Peter’s denials were wiped away and replaced with love and forgiveness. 

God gives us that same chance everyday to undo our denials of Him.  He is the loving God that is standing there waiting for you to turn back towards him and say, “Yes Lord, I love you.”  Come meet our loving God in the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist.

Please pray in a special way for the young people of our Parish who are receiving that love of Christ in a special way this weekend (and over the next few weekends) as they make their First Communions. 

If you love me, feed my sheep. 

Reflection by Matthew Bensman