Cycle C - Year I:

14 April 2013 - 3rd Sunday of Easter

(Liturgical color: White)

John 21:1-19

Loving Jesus, caring for others!
 
We are Easter people as we celebrate with the Risen Christ who saved mankind from bondage to sin, and destroyed the hold that death has on all of us. For the Lord's Resurrection is our promise of new life, both in this world and in the next.

On the third Sunday of Easter, Jesus appears for the third time after the resurrection to his disciples by the Lake of Tiberias. Peter and his companions went fishing but that night they caught nothing. By dawn Jesus appeared but the disciples did not recognize him.

Like in the previous miracle of the big catch of fish in Lake Gennesaret, Jesus again performed a miracle of another big catch of fish, and the disciples realized it was Jesus with them.

At the end of the Gospel narrative, there was a conversation between Jesus and Peter, possibly a slightly uncomfortable one on Peter's part. Because the threefold question from Jesus, "Do you love me?" serves as a reminder of Peter's cowardice and infidelity during the passion when Peter denied Jesus three times.

But Jesus rehabilitates Peter as their leader and asks him a threefold confession of love to make up for his threefold denial at the passion. So Jesus gives Peter a job to do, "Feed my lambs", "Tend my sheep." Jesus also predicted the kind of death that Peter will suffer:"You will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." So it happened that Peter died a martyr, crucified upside down on a cross on the Vatican hill.

In other words, Jesus has challenged Peter to abandon his work as a fisherman for the task of shepherding God's people.

Then comes the fateful last words of today's Gospel reading which is addressed not just to Simon Peter but to all of us down the ages who wish to serve the Lord, the invitation to discipleship:"Follow me."

Thus, the Lord Jesus also calls each one of us, even in our weakness, sinfulness and failings, to love Him above all else.  And loving Jesus entails caring for the people He loves and died for. Loving Jesus means embracing his mission of proclaiming God's kingdom on earth and becoming witnesses of God's love by caring for others, especially the poor and marginalized members of society.

What will be our response? Has Easter given us the confidence to accept Jesus' invitation: "Follow me."?

A blessed Sunday to all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Deo Optimo Maximo!