(These weeks have been very busy and stressful and I forgot to post last week! My apologies to my readers.)
This week is the Third Sunday of Easter, and
our readings highlight the primacy of Peter among the Apostles, and the primacy
of love in following Jesus.
Just a few comments on
the preliminary readings before we concentrate on the Gospel.
During the seven weeks
of the Easter Season, the Lectionary reads semi-continuously through Acts in
the First Reading (showing the birth of the Church on earth) and through
Revelation in the Second (showing the final state of the Church in heaven).
In the First Reading
this week (Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41) we see Peter’s primacy
(“Peter and the apostles said in
reply …”) in leading the early Church through the experience of persecution,
and in boldly proclaiming the Gospel despite sustained and serious cultural
opposition. Let’s pray for Pope Francis
to do the same.
In the Second Reading, (Rev 5:11-14 ), John, whom tradition has identified as the same as the author of this
Sunday’s Gospel, sees the entire creation in worship of the Lamb: “every
creature in heaven and on earth, and under the earth and in the sea”—all cry
out “To the one who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor …”
It’s amazing that John
should have such a universal vision of the glory of the Church, at a time
(perhaps the AD 60’s) when Christianity was still very small and persecuted.
Even today, despite
large numbers on the books, the Church still feels like a little flock,
persecuted by civil authorities as in Acts 5, and also by a smug-and-snarky
international media establishment, yet we take courage in the firm hope that
all creation will acknowledge Jesus as Lord on the last day.
The Gospel is Jn 21:1-19 :
At that
time, Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias.
He revealed himself in this way.
Together were Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus,
Nathanael from Cana in Galilee,
Zebedee’s sons, and two others of his disciples.
Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.”
They said to him, “We also will come with you.”
So they went out and got into the boat,
but that night they caught nothing.
When it was already dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore;
but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to them, “Children, have you caught anything to eat?”
They answered him, “No.”
So he said to them, “Cast the net over the right side of the boat
and you will find something.”
So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in
because of the number of fish.
So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.”
When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord,
he tucked in his garment, for he was lightly clad,
and jumped into the sea.
The other disciples came in the boat,
for they were not far from shore, only about a hundred yards,
dragging the net with the fish.
When they climbed out on shore,
they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread.
Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you just caught.”
So Simon Peter went over and dragged the net ashore
full of one hundred fifty-three large fish.
Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.
Jesus said to them, “Come, have breakfast.”
And none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?”
because they realized it was the Lord.
Jesus came over and took the bread and gave it to them,
and in like manner the fish.
This was now the third time Jesus was revealed to his disciples
after being raised from the dead.
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
He then said to Simon Peter a second time,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.”
Jesus said to him the third time,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was distressed that Jesus had said to him a 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.
Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger,
you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted;
but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands,
and someone else will dress you
and lead you where you do not want to go.”
He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.
And when he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.”
He revealed himself in this way.
Together were Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus,
Nathanael from Cana in Galilee,
Zebedee’s sons, and two others of his disciples.
Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.”
They said to him, “We also will come with you.”
So they went out and got into the boat,
but that night they caught nothing.
When it was already dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore;
but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to them, “Children, have you caught anything to eat?”
They answered him, “No.”
So he said to them, “Cast the net over the right side of the boat
and you will find something.”
So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in
because of the number of fish.
So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.”
When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord,
he tucked in his garment, for he was lightly clad,
and jumped into the sea.
The other disciples came in the boat,
for they were not far from shore, only about a hundred yards,
dragging the net with the fish.
When they climbed out on shore,
they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread.
Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you just caught.”
So Simon Peter went over and dragged the net ashore
full of one hundred fifty-three large fish.
Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.
Jesus said to them, “Come, have breakfast.”
And none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?”
because they realized it was the Lord.
Jesus came over and took the bread and gave it to them,
and in like manner the fish.
This was now the third time Jesus was revealed to his disciples
after being raised from the dead.
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
He then said to Simon Peter a second time,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.”
Jesus said to him the third time,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was distressed that Jesus had said to him a 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.
Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger,
you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted;
but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands,
and someone else will dress you
and lead you where you do not want to go.”
He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.
And when he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.”
Some scholars insist that John 21 is an addition to the Gospel by a
different author that chapters 1-20, but this has to be regarded as improbable
and unsupported. The language,
structures, and thought on John 21 are very similar to the rest of the Gospel
and there are a large number of intertextual links that bind John 21 with the
entire book.
Two other Gospel passages have to be kept in mind to properly
understand John 21. The first is Luke
5:1-11, where Jesus first calls the disciples.
After preaching from Peter’s boat, Jesus tells Peter to “put out into
the deep” (duc in altum) for a big
catch, even though they had toiled all night and caught nothing. Peter and the sons of Zebedee pull in an
amazing catch of fish, Peter begs the Lord to depart because he is a “sinful
man”, and Jesus calls the disciples to follow him and become fishers of
men. There are several obvious parallels
with this Sunday’s Gospel. John the
Evangelist presupposes that the reader knows the story of Luke 5, in order to
grasp that here, in John 21, after the resurrection, Jesus is renewing his call
to the Apostles to “follow him” and calling them back to their original
vocation and mission. This is one of
several instances where John presupposes that his readers have some familiarity
with the life of Jesus from the other Gospels or possibly oral tradition.
The other Gospel passage to be kept in mind is John 18:15-18,25-27,
the account of the threefold denial of Jesus by Peter. When Peter denied Jesus, he was warming
himself over a “charcoal fire” (John 18:18).
Jesus makes a “charcoal fire” to cook breakfast in this Sunday’s Gospel
(John 21:9). These are the only two
references to a charcoal fire in the Gospel of John, indeed in all of
Scripture. It’s not accidental—Peter is
being reminded of the night of his betrayal, and Jesus will allow him a chance
to ritually “renounce his renunciation” three times.
This Gospel account highlights the primacy of Peter among the Apostles. The character of Peter, in fact, dominates
most of John 21, the conclusion of this greatest of the Gospels, even though
the Gospel was clearly written by a different apostle (John 21:20-24). Peter is listed first among the disciples
named as present. The other disciples
follow his lead by accompanying him fishing.
When Jesus shows his presence on the shore, Peter is the first one to go
ashore, followed by the others. The
others don’t seem to be able to get the fish ashore. But then, the way John describes it, it
sounds like Peter goes single-handedly back on board the boat and drags the net
of 153 fish in by himself. After the
breakfast, Peter alone is granted a private audience with the risen Lord. Obviously the author of this Gospel has a
high regard for Peter and his role among the Apostles and within the Church.
But this Gospel is not only about the primacy of Peter. It is also about the primacy of love. During the “audience” between Jesus and Peter
(vv. 15-19), Peter’s ritual re-confirmation as chief shepherd all revolves
around his love for the Lord.
First, Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me more than these?” The question is ambiguous. Who are the “these”? Does Jesus mean:
(1) “Do you love me more than [you love] these [other men]?” I.e. Do you love me above all other persons
in your life?
(2) “Do you love me more than these [fish]?” I.e. Do you love me more
than you profession, your way of life, your livelihood, your “comfort zone”?
(3) “Do you love me more than these [other men do]?” I.e. Do you have
greater love for me than others do? Do
you excel in love, so as to be suitable to excel also in authority?
Ambiguity abounds in the Gospel of John, and I think it is
intentional. All three meanings may well
be meant. Jesus is eliciting from Peter
a comprehensive love to correspond to the comprehensive role of shepherding
that he will bestow.
Three times Jesus asks about Peter’s love; three times he affirms
it. Two different words for “love” are
used in the Greek. The first two times,
Jesus asks Peter, “Do you agape
me?” Agape
is the word for divine love. Peter
always answers, “I phileo you.” Phileo is the Greek word for fraternal
love. The last time, Jesus adopts
Peter’s term and asks, “Do you phileo me?”
This gives the impression that Jesus asks twice, Do you love me with
divine love? And Peter responds twice, “I love you with brotherly love.” And at last Jesus condescends to Peter’s
capabilities, “Do you love me with brotherly love?”, thus implying that such
love will suffice: Jesus will accept what Peter, no longer brash and now
painfully cognizant of his human weakness, knows he can offer.
This interpretation is suggestive, but must be entertained with
caution, because both phileo and agapao are used elsewhere in John for
both divine and human love.
The idea that Jesus is condescending to Peter’s human weakness is,
nonetheless, clear from the passage as a whole.
Otherwise, Jesus would have rejected Peter on account of his threefold
denial at the Lord’s time of need.
The primary requirement that Jesus asks of Peter is love. In return for this love, Jesus commissions
Peter to “Feed my lambs—tend my sheep—feed my sheep.” The threefold repetition of this commission,
together with the variations in which the shepherding charge is phrased, point
to the comprehensive nature of the shepherding role being given to Peter. While all the apostles have a role as
shepherd over part of the flock, Peter is commissioned as shepherd of the whole
flock. As Protestant Bible scholar
Andreas Kostenberger puts it: “[Peter], who has renounced all earthly ties and
who has declared supreme loyalty to Jesus … is commissioned to serve as
shepherd of Jesus’ flock as the Great Shepherd takes his leave.”
It’s
remarkable that more and more Protestant biblicists are willing to acknowledge
that this and other passages of the Gospels imply that Peter was given a kind
of general pastoral responsibility over the whole early Church (see for example
Markus Bockmeuhl, Simon Peter in Scripture and Memory: The New Testament
Apostle in the Early Church [Baker Academic, 2012], especially the last few
pages of the last chapter.)
Peter’s love will lead to the cross.
“When you grow old, you will stretch out your hands” –this is a
reference to stretching one’s arms on the patibulum,
the perpendicular bar of a Roman cross.
Love and authority go together in the Church. Love gives credibility to authority. St. Ignatius of Antioch gives one of the
earliest testimonies to the primacy of the authority of the Church of Rome,
Peter’s See, in his Letter to the Romans, when he famously refers to Rome
“presiding in love” over the other churches.
Indeed, whoever would preside in authority should first preside in
love. Pope Francis quoted St. Ignatius’
words about “presiding in love” on the very night he was first presented on the
balcony of St. Peter’s as “bishop of Rome,” the one who presides over the church
that is to preside in love.
This Sunday’s Gospel lays out the role of Peter and all his
successors: they must renounce all others and excel in love of Jesus in order
to lead the whole Church.
At the same time, the Lord’s words are applied to us: Do we love him
“more than these”? Do we love him more
than we love other persons, than we love our profession and lifestyle? Do we in any way distinguish ourselves from
other people by our love for Christ?
That’s what it means to follow Jesus, and everyone, from the Pope to the
most unknown believer, has to respond to Jesus’ summons: “Follow me!”
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