Do You Love Me?

Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter

On the third Sunday of Easter in the C Cycle of the Lectionary for Mass, we hear an appearance story from the twenty-first chapter of St. John’s Gospel.  Jesus appears to the apostles who are out on the Sea of Tiberias fishing.  Think about that for a moment.  The apostles are fishing.  Is that something that they should be doing?  Wasn’t fishing their former way of life?  Why have they returned to this occupation after they had witnessed the passion, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus?  Did not Jesus commission them to preach forgiveness of sins throughout the world?

Another interesting detail tells us that Jesus appears to seven of the apostles, not all twelve.  Where are the other five?

As has been the case in other appearance stories, the apostles do not immediately recognize Jesus. Their eyes are unable to see their Master whom they all abandoned as he was led away by the Temple guard.   As a matter of fact, it is only after they follow the suggestion of the stranger who stands on the sea shore while they are fishing and cast their nets over the other side of the boat, catching 153 large fish, that recognize Jesus.  There is a similar story at the very beginning of the Gospel of St. Luke.  After that story, Peter, John, and James all leave their fishing nets and follow Jesus. Now we see that they have returned to their nets. Is this, perhaps, an attempt on the part of the evangelist to comment on whether or not the apostles were working at the commission they were given to go forth and baptize all nations?

In the course of the conversation between Jesus and the apostles, it becomes obvious that Peter is being put on the spot for the denials he uttered while Jesus was in the custody of the chief priests and the Sanhedrin.  Jesus asks him three times to declare his love for him.  In addition, there is a note of competition between Peter and the “disciple whom Jesus loved.” 

All of these questions are interesting, to say the least.  Yet the most interesting detail for me is that Jesus addresses Peter as Simon. It was Jesus himself who proclaimed that Simon was now Peter, the rock on which Jesus would build his church. Because of his inability to admit that he was one of the disciples of Jesus and denied him three times, is it possible that Jesus has changed his mind?

At the same time, we have to remember that the reason John wrote his Gospel was to bring us to faith. At the end of the Gospel reading from last week, St. John wrote: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.” Consequently, even though there are many questions about Peter in this final chapter of St. John’s Gospel, we must remember that the Gospel is about Jesus not about Peter. If, indeed, the apostles have returned to their former way of life, perhaps the evangelist is simply trying to help us see that when we fall, we must get up again.  None of us is perfect.  None of the apostles was perfect.  We are all sinners.  The only one who is without sin is the man who invites us to the shore to sit with him awhile with a little breakfast.  Rather than give up when we fail, this story simply teaches us to try again.  Peter failed when he denied that he knew Jesus.  By our conduct we are probably guilty of the same thing.  All Jesus asks us is “Do you love me?” How would we answer that question were it asked of us?