Christmas Day 2010, The Secret Fish

Christmas III

John 21: 15-25

(The End of the Four Gospels)

After they had 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.”

Arild Rosenkrantz

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 now saw him, his asked, “Lord, what of this man, what is his task?”

Jesus said to him: If is my will that he remain until my coming, that does not affect your path. 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, 2010

John 21:15-25

We celebrate the birth of God’s overflowing love taking on human form. God’s love focused itself intensely in Christ Jesus. The Christ Child, received in tenderness, cradled in the warmth of His mother’s love, grows. Being human, he will die. And yet something strange will happen: what is inside of Him, God’s overflowing abundance of love for the earth, will turn itself inside out. What is inside the man Jesus, radiating from there out into the world, will after His death surround the world from everywhere—love and strength.

The Child, love incarnate, has become the element of strong love that surrounds us all. Like air, we breathe it in. Like water, we swim in it. It sustains our life.

We are meant to become aware of this flowing invisible element of love that

Christopherus, Eyb

surrounds us. Hence the three questions to Peter—do you love me? We are to breathe in strong love and radiate it out again. With it, we are to nourish and protect those around us. The love we breathe in, the Christ love, we are to transform into deeds of love in support of our fellow human beings, for the earth. As the poet says:

As timely as a river

God's timeless life passes

Into this world. It passes

Through bodies, giving life,

And past them, giving death.

The secret fish leaps up

Into the light and is

Again darkened. The sun

Comes from the dark, it lights

The always passing river,

Shines on the great-branched tree,

And goes. Longing and dark,

We are completely filled

With breath of love, in us

Forever incomplete.[1]

We need a lot of practice, for we are not yet masters of love. But every year we become aware again of our task. Every year, our answer, ‘yes Lord, you know that I love you’, gains in strength.

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[1]  Wendell Berry, “Given”