4 May, 2025, Third Sunday of Easter, Year C: Acts 5:27-32. 40b-41; Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-19
I draw your attention to Jesus’ question to Peter: Do you love me?
For several weeks we’ve celebrated a pageant of betrayal, misunderstanding, suffering, injustice, cruelty, fidelity of the few—and the unexpected miracle of resurrection. Isn’t it so easy to forget that all of this shapes the story of God’s incredible love for us? And God’s yearning for our love? That’s why I believe that this question, Do you love me? is so important.
This dialogue between Jesus and Peter reminds me how challenging God’s love is. Doesn’t this love remind Peter—and me—of all that I’ve done to betray that love? Jesus asks that question three times as, just a few days before, Peter had denied knowing him three times. So isn’t this question an invitation to include my frailties and bad choices as part of the story of that enduring, crazy love? Jesus doesn’t ignore it or exclude it but embraces it, insofar as I am willing to own it as part of our relationship.
Might that not mean that God is not only willing to redeem my life, but to bring out of my life strengths and resolve I’d never suspected? Couldn’t my stubbornness be transmuted into steadfastness, my shame into determination, my dissatisfaction into a commitment to justice, my weakness into understanding for others?
Indeed, doesn’t God want all of me and not just the best of me?