(The sixteenth in a series of meditations on the Mysteries of the Rosary by Rev. Addisalem T. Mekonnen, Spiritual Director of the Philadelphia Senatus).
Do you love God more than anyone and anything?
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.” John 21:15
Whenever we think about all the things we would guess that our Blessed Lord would say to St. Peter after he denied and abandoned Jesus we never would of thought He would point this question to him. Our Blessed Lord didn’t ask why did you deny Me three times or why did you abandon Me when you said you would die with Me. These actions of St. Peter were no surprise for our Blessed Lord but they were for St. Peter. Whenever we are surprised by the sins we fall into or when others deny or betray us, we can remember that our Blessed Lord already knows everything and He alone is unchangeable. We may feel less trusting or become suspicious of others because of a bad experience we had in our friendship with others but Jesus is the only friend who is perfectly trustworthy. St. Peter was known as a strong leader among his friends, the apostles, because of his strong will and so he trusted himself to the degree that he told our Blessed Lord you can depend on me Lord more than anyone else. Our Blessed Lord knew this strong will was a gift and a curse. It was a gift because our Blessed Lord gave him this strong will in service of the Gospel, but it became a curse because he trusted it more than His faith animated by love for Jesus. For St. Peter and us, the “these” our Blessed Lord was referring to was not only our natural gifts, but rather everything that we depend upon as the primary source of our strength or power to be ruled and influenced by our living faith animated by charity. This faith animated by charity in our Lord’s resurrection was the powerful food our Blessed Lord spoon fed St. Peter in order that he in turn may feed our Lord’s sheep with the same food. I say spoon fed because our Blessed Lord was looking and speaking directly at him repeating the same question three times in a row. That is what a good parent does when they are teaching their child something very important and they want the child not only to remember what was said but also grasp the depth of what was taught. This question and answer format was also the ancient method of teaching among both the Jewish religious leaders and Greek philosophers. St. Peter had faith and love for our Blessed Lord as he clearly stated to Jesus three times, but it was not mature enough to help him follow Christ to Calvary at that moment in time.
Our Lord revealed to him and to us that our potential is limitless whenever we continue to allow Christ to purify our faith and love for Him, to the degree that He alone becomes our only strength. Let us pray this decade pondering in our heart this same question pointed to us directly and we should insert our name in that verse. We should then repeat the response of St. Peter to our Blessed Lord because He is truly waiting for our response and hoping we say these words to Him as well. Then our Blessed Lord will make our words bear fruit in our actions and our words.
Fr. Addisalem Mekonnen