John 21: 15-19
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the 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. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Do We Love Unconditionally?
I cannot read John 21 without hearing the soundtrack to Fiddler on the Roof. As their daughter prepares to get married, Tevye asks his wife Golde, “Do you love me?” She dodges the question again and again until at last she asks herself, “Do I love him? For twenty-five years I've lived with him, fought him, starved with him. Twenty-five years my bed is his; if that's not love, what is?”
Just like Golde, Peter has a hard time saying that he loves Jesus. He keeps responding with different Greek words for love, but he can never bring himself to say, “Yes, Lord! I love you unconditionally,” which is all that Jesus really wants to know.
Today, do we hear Jesus asking us this same question? How do we react? Do we dodge and evade, like Peter? Is there anything holding us back from saying yes?
—Alex DeWitt, SJ, is a Jesuit scholastic of the Midwest Province finishing his theology studies at Regis College in Toronto.
Prayer
And with this, to reflect on myself, considering with much reason and justice, what I ought on my side to offer and give to God, that is to say, everything that is mine, and myself with it.
—St. Ignatius, Spiritual Exercises, no. 234.