Do You Love Me?

It was raining hard when I woke up this morning.  I ran with my briefcase to my car and drove to morning Mass.  I walked around the grounds of my church, with an umbrella from my back seat the rest of the morning.  After some meetings and work at my desk I walked to my car to leave but realized I could not go yet.  I wanted to feel some part of the heaviness of today, stand beneath the dark clouds.  I did not want to avoid the reality of suffering.  Opening the passenger door I placed my umbrella, briefcase, and paperwork in my car.  I walked through the wind, cold, and rain to the front doors of the church.  Standing there I knew that I would not stay long but I stop in the gathering space praying for God’s power to overcome the evil tragedy that brought these people here today.  I watched as the people dressed in black moved around me.  Then I saw a fellow minister of mine and her baby.  I walked to her and immediately took the child from her weary arms, she sighed, “Thank you” and put down the many bags she was carrying.  The baby boy squirmed in my arms for the next few minutes, putting his little hand through my beard, grabbing my lower lip, and staring at me with his wide eyes.  He was oblivious to the pain around him and he smiled with joy.

“I am going fishing” Peter said.  After everything that had happened and from all of the confusion and sorrow Peter wanted to do something easy, something he was comfortable with.  His father was a fisherman, his brother was a fisherman, he was a fisherman.  There was probably nothing more familiar to Peter than the simple combination of boats and nets.

They pulled in 153 large fish but Jesus was already sitting there with food on the fire.  He invited them over casually, “Bring some of the fish you just caught...Come have breakfast.”  As they sat there Jesus asked Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”  He even addressed him as his old name, “Simon, son of John,” giving him the freedom to return to his old identity. “Do you love me more than these?”  He is talking about the fish.  153 large fish is a success.  It is a monetary and professional success.  “Do you love me more than these?”  Peter responded quickly,  “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”  Jesus commanded, “Feed my lambs.”  Jesus asked him a second time and followed with, “Tend my sheep” and a third time, “Feed my sheep.”  

There are lambs and sheep that need feeding and tending.  There are people suffering, that is what Jesus is saying.  “CARE FOR MY PEOPLE! THEY ARE IN NEED!”  “Do you love me more than these?”  What does that mean?  It means do you love me enough to leave that which you are most comfortable with?  Do you love me enough to leave behind professional and financial success?  Because I already have food here waiting for you.  Use the gifts you would have used out there, “Bring some of the fish you just caught” but I’ll provide for you.  The meal is already on the fire, do not doubt God’s providence.  Peter is being called into ministry, which at its root means, "service."  Peter seems to be answering 'yes' to that call but what does that lead to?  “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.”  

If you love Me then you will tend to My flock and then you will be killed.  Ministry is service and martyrdom.  “Do you love me more than these?  Feed, tend, feed.”  We need more servants.  We need help serving His flock.  We need more devoted, faithful, prayerful, hopeful, joyful, loving, bold, and holy Christians.  “And when He had said this, he said to him, ‘Follow me.’”

To all of those in ministry, paid or unpaid, thank you.  Keep serving and keep choosing to love Jesus more than everything else.

Text quoted from 21st chapter of the Gospel of John.