Christmas III, Day
John 21:15-25
Now is proclaimed the end of
the entire Gospel, according to John in the 21st chapter:
After they had held their
meal together,
Jesus said to Simon Peter: "Simon, son of John, do you love
me more than the others here?”
Peter answered, "Lord,
you know that I am your friend."
Jesus said to him, "Feed
my lambs." And he said to him again, a second time, "Simon, son of
John, do you love me?”
Peter
answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I am devoted to you."
Jesus
said to him, "Shepherd my young sheep." He asked him a third time, "Simon,
Son of John, Are you my friend?"
Peter was heartbroken that he
could say to him the third time, 'Are you my friend,' and he answered, "Lord,
you know all things; therefore, you know that I am devoted to you."
Jesus said, "Feed my
sheep. Amen, the truth I say to you, when
you were younger, you girded yourself and walked wherever you wished. But when
you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and Another will gird you and
lead you where you do not wish to go."
He told him this to indicate
the kind of death by which he would bring the divine to revelation. Then he
said to him, "Follow me."
But Peter, turning, saw the
disciple whom Jesus loved, following him. He was the one who had leaned upon
his breast at the supper and had asked, "Lord, who is it who betrays you?"
When Peter saw him, he asked, "Lord, what of this man; what is his task?"
Jesus said to him, "If it
is my will that he remain until my coming, that does not affect your path. You
follow me."
From this day, the story
spread among the brethren that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not
say to him that he would not die, but, "If it is my will that he remain
until my coming, that does not affect your path."
This is the disciple who
here bears witness to these things and who has written all this. And we know
that his testimony is true. There are also many other things that Jesus did. If
they were to be written down one by one, I do not think that the world itself
could contain the books that would have to be written.
Christmas
III, Day
December 25, 2022
John 21:15–26
Every child is born for a purpose.
At midnight we heard how the Christ Child was conceived. At dawn, we held him
in our hearts in amazed reverence. And now, suddenly, the tender child-bud is
fully grown. The gospel reading catapults us into the Child’s future, and the
whole purpose of His life flashes before us. The man that the child will become
already stands before us, not merely full grown, but already born yet again as
the Risen One. |
Friedrich Stockli |
The Rose of Love has already blossomed from the crown of thorns.
He is asking Peter, “Do you love me?
Will you turn my love toward others? Will you share it? Will you nourish,
guide, and protect them as I have nourished, guided, and protected you?”
His first birth was a gift from
the angels. We glimpse his approaching second blossoming, but one that is now
intimately tied to us. We hear his words, “Do you love me?” and like Peter, it
breaks our hearts. For now, the Rose would multiply. The Rose would be handed
as healing to those who suffer, as food and drink to those who hunger and
thirst. He needs human wills, turned to the good, to distribute the roses of healing
and peace.
“Do you love me?”
And we answer in the words of
Rilke:
We
will sense you
like
a fragrance from a nearby garden…*
Only
in our doing can we grasp you
Only
with our hands can we illumine you….**
The
day’s labor grows simple now
and
like a holy face
held
in [our] my dark hands.***
*Rilke, The Book of Hours, Barrows
and Macy, pg 122
**pg. 84
***pg. 147
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