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,
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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