The query was: "Do you love Me with that truly supernatural love, the mark of a chief shepherd?" Peter had once presumed on the greatness of His love, telling His Master the night of the Last Supper, that even though all others would be offended and scandalized in Him, yet he would not deny. Peter was now addressed as Simon, son of John - Simon being his original name. Our Lord Jesus Christ thus reminded Peter of his past as a natural man, but especially of his fall or denial. He had been living by nature rather than grace. The title also had another significance; it must have reminded Peter of his glorious confession when Our Lord said to him, "Blessed art thou Simon, son of John," and made him the Rock on which He would build His Church. In answer to the question about love, Peter said:

Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Then feed my lambs, he said. - John 21:15 -

Peter now no longer claimed any superiority of affection over the other followers of Our Lord, for the other six Apostles were standing about. In the original Greek, the word which Our Blessed Lord used for love was not the same as that which was used by Peter in answer. The word that Peter used implied a rather natural emotion. Peter missed the full significance of Our Lord's words about the highest kind of love. Peter in self-distrust affirmed no more than a natural love. Having made love the condition of service to Him, the Risen Savior now told Peter, "Feed My lambs." The man who had fallen most deeply and learned about thoroughly his own weakness was certainly the best qualified for strengthening the weak and feeding the lambs.

Thrice repeated was the appointment of Peter as the Vicar of Christ on earth. Peter's denial had not changed the Divine decree making him the Rock of the Church; for Our Blessed Savior continued the second and third question:

A second time he asked, Simon son of John, do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know I love you. Tend my sheep. A third time he said, Simon son of John, Do you love me? Lord, he said, you know everything; you know I love you. - John 21:16-17 -

The original Greek word used by Our Lord in the second question implied supernatural love, but Peter used the same word as before which signified a natural love. In the third question, Our Lord used the same word that Peter used for love the first time, namely, the word that meant only a natural affection. It was as if Divine Master was correcting His own words in order to find one more congenial to Peter and his character. Perhaps it was the adoption of Peter's own word in the third question that cut him and grieved him most.

In answer to the third question, Peter left out the affirmation of love, but conceded omniscience to the Lord. In the original Greek, the word which Peter used when he said that Our Lord knew all things implied a knowledge by Divine vision. When Peter said the Lord knew that he loved Him, the Greek word used meant only knowledge by direct observation. As Peter went step by step down the ladder of humiliation, step by step the Lord followed him with the assurance of the work for which he was destined.

Our Lord said of Himself: "I am the Door." To Peter He had given the keys and the function of the doorkeeper. The Savior's function as the visible Shepherd over the visible flock was drawing to an end. He transferred that function to the head shepherd before withdrawing His visible Presence to the Throne of Heaven where He would be the invisible Head and Shepherd.

The Galilean fisherman was promoted to the leadership and the primacy of the Church. He was the first among all the Apostles in every apostolic list. Not only was he always named first but there was also precedence in action; he was the first to bear witness to Christ's Resurrection from the dead. As Paul himself said, the Lord was first seen by Peter; Peter was the first after the Mission of the Spirit on Pentecost to preach the Gospel to his fellow men. He was first in the infant Church to defy the rage of the persecutor, first among the twelve to welcome the believing Gentiles into the Church, and first about whom it was foretold that he would suffer a death of martyrdom for the sake of Christ.

During the public life, when Our Blessed Lord had told Peter that he was a Rock upon which He would build His Church, He prophesied that He would be crucified and would rise again. Peter then tempted Him away from the Cross. In reparation for that temptation which Our Lord called satanic, He now, have commissioned Peter with full authority to rule over His lambs and sheep, foretold that Peter himself would die upon the Cross. He was almost saying to Peter: "You will have a Cross like the Cross to which they nailed Me, and from which you would have prevented Me from entering into My glory.

Now you must learn what means to love. My love is a vestibule to death. Because I loved you, they have killed Me; for your love of Me, they will kill you. I once said that the Good Shepherd would give up His life for His sheep; now you are My shepherd in My place; you will, therefore, receive the same reward for your labors as I have received - crossbeams, four nails, and then life eternal."

And further. I tell you this in very truth: when you were young you fastened your belt about you and walked where you chose; but when you are old you will stretch out your arms, and a stranger will bind you fast, and carry you where you have no wish to go. - John 21:18 -

Impulsive and self-willed though he was in the days of his youth, yet in his old age Peter would glorify the Master by a death on the Cross. From Pentecost on, Peter was led where he would not go. He was obliged to leave the Holy City, where imprisonment and the sword awaited him. Next He was led by His Divine Master to Samaria and into the house of the Gentile, Cornelius; then he was led to Rome, the new Babylon, where he was strengthened by the strangers of the dispersion whom Paul had brought into the fold; finally, he was led to a Cross and died a martyr's death on the hill of the Vatican. He was crucified at his own request with his head downwards, deeming it unworthy to die like the Master. Inasmuch as he was the Rock, it was fitting that he himself be laid in the earth as an impregnable foundation of the Church.

Thus the man who was always tempting the Lord away from the Cross was the first of the Apostles to go to it. The Cross that he embraced redounded to the glory of his Savior more than all the zeal and impetuosity of his youth. When Peter did not understand that the Cross implied Redemption from sin, he put his own death before that of the Master, saying that though all others would fail to defend Him, he would not. Now Peter saw that it was only in the light of the Cross of Calvary that the Cross he would embrace had meaning and significance. Toward the end of his life, Peter would see the Cross before him and write:

I know that very soon I must leave it; indeed our Lord Jesus Christ has told me so. But I will see to it that after I am gone you will have means of remembering these things at all times. It was not on tales artfully spun that we relied when we told you of the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and His coming. - 2 Peter 1:14-15 -

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Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.


HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-25 -