Do You Love Me?
In the Gospel this Sunday the risen Jesus, encountered by the Sea of Tiberius, directed the fishing disciples, who had caught nothing all night, to cast the net on the right side of the boa. And so they caught a huge quantity of fish. Jesus invited them to the breakfast he had prepared for them. It was when breakfast was finished that Jesus turned to Peter. He asked him a question three times: ‘Simon, Son of John, do you love me more than these?’
The evangelist, writing in Greek, uses two different verbs for what is translated as ‘love’. In the first and second questions Jesus asks agapas me? — the holy, unselfish sort of love. But on the third time Jesus asks phileis me? This refers to the more common, human sort of love between good friends, which upsets Peter. As Fr Sylvester O’Flynn says in his book Come and See:
It probes more deeply under what might be a pious cover. Do you like me? Are you comfortable with me? It can be easy enough to give the pious answer that we love God. But are we comfortable with God? Do we spend time with God as with a great friend?
In asking Peter a third time, using this different word, Jesus was helping him to recognise that all the love that was deep in his heart may have been hidden by his feelings of guilt. Jesus then gave Peter the pastoral role of feeding and caring for the flock. In his reflection on this Gospel passage, Fr O’Flynn says that love was the one quality that the Lord look for before he bestowed this position of authority.
The Cardinals meet in conclave this coming Wednesday 7th May. Whomever they choose will be the successor of Peter. A man, human to a fault, but divine by appointment. The last letter that Pope Francis wrote was entitled Dilexit nos [‘he loved us’]. It retraces the tradition and relevance of thought on ‘the human and divine love of the heart of Jesus Christ’, calling for a renewal of authentic devotion — to avoid forgetting the tenderness of faith, the joy of serving and the fervour of mission. Pope Francis ended his encyclical with this prayer, which I hope will be on the lips of all the Cardinals as they enter the Sistine Chapel:
I ask our Lord Jesus Christ to grant that His Sacred Heart may continue to pour forth the streams of living water that can heal the hurt we have caused, strengthen our ability to love and serve others and inspire us to journey together towards a just, solidary and fraternal world. Until that day when we will rejoice in celebrating together the banquet of the heavenly kingdom in the presence of the risen Lord, who harmonises all our differences in the light that radiates perpetually from his open heart. May he be blessed forever.
