3rdSundayofEaster10

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Third Sunday of Easter (Cycle C) April 18, 2010

Scripture ReadingsFirst Acts of the Apostles 5:27-32, 40b-41Second Revelation 5:11-14Gospel John 21:1-19

Prepared by: Fr. Thomas Petri, O.P.

1. Subject Matter

Love of the Lord is the foundation of apostolic mission of the Church.

The love of the Lord is greater than our sins.

Obedience to God supersedes obedience to man.

2. Exegetical Notes

For Luke, the apostles preaching is bound to Jerusalem according to the divine ordering ofsacred history [cf. Acts 1:4]. Hence the apostles only self-defense is: We must obey Godrather than men.... The abrupt transition from a reference to the situation (v. 29b) to kerygma(vv. 30-32) emphasizes the apostles necessary and decisive rejection of the command not toteach (The Jerome Biblical Commentary).

The passage [in Acts] goes on to show (vv. 26-33) how the apostles proclaim the keyelements of Christian teaching even to the members of the Sanhedrin. They are moreconcerned about the spiritual welfare of their judges than they are about their own safety(The Navarre New Testament).

We cannot but notice the contrast [in Acts] between the Peter who denied Jesus (Lk 22:54-62) and this Peter who is sifted like wheat (see Lk 22:31) and does not yield, thanks to Jesusprayer (see Lk 22:32) (The Navarre New Testament).

This weeks passage from the Gospel of John is an addition to the Gospel, written either bythe evangelist himself or by one of his disciples (see v. 24). The main theme is the Church;and the communion that exists between the beloved disciple and Peter is plain to see. Byrecounting the commission given by Jesus to Peter to lead his Church (vv. 15-17), thebeloved disciple acknowledges Peters authority, and implicitly submits his entire testimony,written and oral, to his judgment (The Navarre New Testament).

The traditional interpretation, that the Lords threefold question demanding a threefoldprofession of love is to correspond to Peters threefold denial, is doubtless correct....


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Previously he had been serenely confident of himself...; now he will assume nothing tohimself nor will he pretend to compare his love with any others, but he humbly asserts whatthe Lord already knows concerning his love (The Jerome Biblical Commentary).

It will be the destiny of Peter to follow the Good Shepherd in every detail, even to the layingdown of his life....Similar expressions [to the Gospel phrase you will stretch out your hands,and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go] are used bycontemporary Christian and non-Christian writers to refer to crucifixion. It is to this that theauthor refers in v. 19, noting the pregnant meaning of the Lords follow me. This is the oldestwritten attestation to the tradition of Peters martyrdom by crucifixion, an event well known tothe Christians for whom this Gospel was written (The Jerome Biblical Commentary).

In the synoptic Gospels, the operation of hauling a catch of fish to shore is an image of thekingdoms coming, Mt 13:47f, or of the apostles task, Mt 4:19. Here, too, it evidentlysymbolizes the apostolic mission under Peters direction. Cf. Jn 21:15-17 (The Jerusalem

Bible).

3. References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church

1428-1429 Christs call to conversion continues to resound in the lives of Christians. Thissecond conversion is an uninterrupted task for the whole Church.... This endeavor ofconversion is not just a human work. It is the movement of a contrite heart, drawn andmoved by grace to respond to the merciful love of God who loved us first.... St. Petersconversion after he had denied his master three times bears witness to this. Jesus look ofinfinite mercy drew tears of repentance from Peter and, after the Lords resurrection, athreefold affirmation of love for him

734 Because we are dead or at least wounded through sin, the first effect of the gift of loveis the forgiveness of our sins

642 Everything that happened during those Paschal days involves each of the apostlesand Peter in particularin the building of the new era begun on Easter morning. Aswitnesses of the Risen One, they remain the foundation stones of his Church. The faith of thefirst community of believers is based on the witness of concrete men known to the Christiansand for most part still living among them

4. Patristic Commentary and Other Authorities

St. Cyril of Alexandria: It is not difficult to see how the Spirit transforms the souls of those inwhom he lives: from love of earthly things, the Spirit leads us to hope in the things of heaven;and where once we were cowardly and full of fright, He makes us spiritually brave anddauntless.

St. Augustine: While our Lord was being condemned to death, Peter feared, and deniedHim. But by His resurrection Christ implanted love in his heart, and drove away fear. Peterdenied, because he feared to die: but when our Lord was risen from the dead, and by Hisdeath destroyed death, what should he fear?


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St. Augustine was another sinner who gave into the pleasures of the flesh before hisconversion at the age 32. He had heard St. Ambrose preach on the beauty of the SacredScripture and then had a mystical experience of hearing a child sing Take and read.Repenting from his previous way of life, he was baptized and later ordained a priest andbishop. In his Confessions, he writes:

Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You werewithin me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness Iplunged into the lovely things which you created.... You called, you shouted, and youbroke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness.You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tastedyou, now I hunger and thirst for me. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.

6. Quotations from Pope Benedict XVI

One of the basic characteristics of a shepherd must be to love the people entrusted to him,even as he loves Christ whom he serves.... Feeding means loving, and loving also meansbeing ready to suffer. Loving means giving the sheep what is truly good, the nourishment ofGods truth, of Gods word, the nourishment of his presence, which he gives us in theBlessed Sacrament.

The school of faith is not a triumphal march but a journey marked daily by suffering and love,trials and faithfulness. Peter, who promised absolute fidelity, knew the bitterness andhumiliation of denial: the arrogant man learns the costly lesson of humility. Peter, too, mustlearn that he is weak and in need of forgiveness.

From the nave enthusiasm of initial acceptance, passing through the sorrowful experienceof denial and the weeping of conversion, Peter succeeded in entrusting himself to that Jesuswho adapted himself to his poor capacity of love. And in this way he shows us the way,notwithstanding all of our weakness. We know that Jesus adapts himself to this weakness ofours. We follow him with our poor capacity to love and we know that Jesus is good and heaccepts us.

7. Other Considerations

In the Gospel, John uses two different words for love. The word phileo refers to a love offriendship, which is affectionate but not all-encompassing or self-sacrificing. The wordagapao, on the other hand, is a love without reserve. It is total and unconditional. In thedialogue between Jesus and Peter, our Lord initially asks Peter if he loves him with the latter:the self-sacrificing and complete love that is agape(Simon... do you love me [agapas me]?).Peter responds with the lesser love: Lord, you know that I love you (philo se). The secondinterrogation repeats this pattern. But in the third question, the Lords question changes. Helowers the standard and asks Peter, Do you love me (Phileis me)? Contemporary biblicalexegetes suggest this is nothing more than Johns typical use of synonyms for literarypurposes. However, following Pope Benedict XVI, the preacher might emphasize thatwhereas before the Passion Peter would have been unhesitant in affirming a complete self-sacrificing love to the Lord (agape), his denial has revealed his own weaknesses to himself.For his part, the Lord Jesus adapts himself to the Peters newfound self-knowledge and


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accepts the weaker love that Peter knows he can offer. This is to say that Jesus has puthimself on the level of Peter, rather than Peter on Jesus level! It is exactly this divineconformity that gives hope to the Disciple, who experienced the pain of infidelity (PopeBenedict XVI). Jesus also knows that Peter will mature in his love and will, in fact, rise to theself-sacrificing love of agapewhen he gives his life for the Gospel in martyrdom. Our Lordaccepts what little love we can offer now but the Christian life is a path of grace by which weare slowly transformed to offer more and more of ourselves in increasingly greaterexpressions of love.

Recommended Resources

PLEASE CHECK SPR ARCHIVES

Von Balthasar, Hans Urs. Light of the World: Brief Reflections on the Sunday Readings. SanFrancisco: Ignatius Press, 1993/

Benedict XVI, Pope. Benedictus. Yonkers: Magnificat, 2006.

Cameron, Peter John. To Praise, To Bless, To PreachCycle C. Huntington: Our SundayVisitor, 2000.

Hahn, Scott:

http://www.salvationhistory.com/library/scripture/churchandbible/homilyhelps/homilyhelps.cfm.

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