Reflection for Third Sunday of Easter
As we continue to celebrate this Easter season we are gifted with stories of the joy and enthusiasm experienced by the friends of Jesus who meet him. And so many of those meetings involve meals where Jesus comes to bring peace and assurance. There are so many compassionate and loving actions we see in Jesus in his glory and his own joy.
One of the most touching and affirming revelations of the unconditional love and mercy of God comes at the meeting at the Sea of Tiberius where His friends are fed the breakfast of bread and fish. We remember that Peter had denied Jesus three times. Now Jesus addresses Peter, but not with a question of his repentance. Jesus, as he speaks to Peter, asks only one question: “Do you love me?” Not “Are you sorry, or do you regret what you did.” Only “Do you love me?”
As the darkness of the night turns to the light of dawn Jesus reveals himself. Jesus, the light of the world, reveals himself to us as the full picture of God: the one who has come that we may have life to the full—and have this life amid our own weakness, even our feelings of guilt or regret.
With great joy and gratitude, we can answer His question for ourselves. And when the answer is “Yes,” we experience what Peter must have felt when Jesus went on to tell him that the only thing that really mattered was that he loved Him as well as he could, and that was enough!
Len Kraus, S.J.
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