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Homily for Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter, 03 June 2022, Jn 21:15-19
Next to the Bible, one of the most translated, most published and most popular books for Christians is THE IMITATION OF CHRIST, by Thomas a Kempis, written around 600 years ago.
It is what came to my mind as I meditated on the Gospel reading today, which ends with two words: FOLLOW ME. I have a feeling that Thomas a Kempis had drawn his inspiration to write that famous book, from this moving passage in John’s Gospel. Here I imagine Peter in tears after Jesus asked him for the third time, DO YOU LOVE? I think it was only then that Peter realized what Jesus was doing; that the Lord was raising him back to life. Jesus was giving him the opportunity to renew his commitment—with one word of love for every word of denial.
Peter had actually missed the point when he answered the first two questions. Jesus had asked “DO YOU LOVE ME?” (Agapas me?) using the Greek verb AGAPEIN for love. Peter kept answering “YES, LORD I LOVE YOU”, (Nai Kurie, Philo se) using a different Greek verb, PHILEIN, for love. What was Jesus expecting of Peter? Well, nothing short of what Jesus had said in his last will and testament, what he called his NEW COMMANDMENT: “Love one another as I love you.” (Jn 15:12)
The first part about LOVING ONE ANOTHER sounds easy. It is the second part about the criterion for loving that’s difficult: AS JESUS LOVES US. In short, Christian discipleship is basically about IMITATING CHRIST’S WAY OF LOVING, the kind that reflects DIVINE LOVE, or God’s way of loving.
What I find most touching in this Gospel is the way Jesus reformulates his question when he asks Peter the third time, DO YOU LOVE ME. There, he does not force the question anymore. Instead, he adjusts to Peter’s vocabulary, using the Greek verb PHILEIN, the more common word that refers to HUMAN LOVE, instead of the more noble word AGAPEIN that John takes to mean DIVINE LOVE.
Peter actually gets the point when he answers the third time. I think what he meant to say was this, “Lord, I know you expect me to love you as you love me. But how can I do that? You know that I am only human and a sinner. Forgive me, but that is the only way of loving that I know.”
Remember that earlier passage where Peter got reprimanded by Jesus and was even called “Satan” by the Lord because he was trying to prevent Jesus from proceeding to Jerusalem in order to suffer and die there? Remember how Jesus told him, “You are thinking NOT AS GOD DOES, but AS HUMANS DO.” Peter is getting exactly the same message in our Gospel today, but stated differently, “You are LOVING, NOT AS GOD DOES, but AS HUMANS DO.” It must have sounded like a tall order to Peter, it was like Jesus was demanding the impossible.
Can we really love AS GOD LOVES US? The answer of Jesus is YES. He elaborates on it towards the end of the Gospel. “Yes, you can, if, as you grow old, you are willing to stretch out your hands and allow someone else to dress you up and lead you where you do not want to go.”
That is what Thomas a Kempis’ book is really all about—following Christ by imitating Christ, truly human and truly divine in one person. By allowing him to lead us by the hand.
Let me end by quoting from chapter 56 of that book: There the writer says, “Jesus gives his important teaching, ‘Follow Me…I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Without the Way, there is no going; without the Truth, there is no knowing; without Life, there is no living. I am the Way you are to follow; I am the Truth you are to believe; I am the Life you are to hope for.”
