Christmas III
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
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
Dec 25, 2016
John 21: 15-25
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| David Newbatt |
At midnight, we heard about the great tree of Jesus's ancestry, rooted forty-two generations in the past and Joseph's protecting of the flower of that life. And then earlier this morning we heard the story of His birth, surrounded by the radiance of the heavenly Father's angels, reflected in the joyous hearts of the shepherds. This story wants to be re-enacted today, in the present, in every human heart.
And so now we hear the story of Christ and Peter, from the very end of all the Gospels. It is a story that points the way from the past, into the future.
At the first Christmas, the Father's Love and Creative Power began the process of becoming human. He chose the body in which he would dwell. In this last reading of the day, from the end of John's Gospel, we hear the Risen Christ's threefold question to Peter: 'Do you love me?' We hear the high hope that Christ has for humanity. His hope is that He, the Being of Love, will become active in each of us. This is a hope that is still ever-present and faithfully carried in Christ's heart. For He has chosen the earthly bodies in which he would abide.
The choice to respond is ours. His work of healing is a long range one. It carries us into the future, drenched with hope and grace. Later, another St. John, St. John of the Cross, converses with Christ:
"What is grace” I asked God.
And He said,
say that every moment in their Beloved’s arms
was grace?
Existence is my arms,
though I well understand how one can turn
away from
me
until the heart has
wisdom.”*
*St. John of the Cross, "WHAT IS GRACE," in Love Poems from God, by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 321
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