“SPRINGS OF LIVING WATER”
Daily Spiritual Reflections
21st May 2021
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FRIDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTER
Reading 1: Acts 25: 13-21 Paul is now in Caesaria; he, as a Roman citizen, has appealed his case to the emperor, and he awaits the royal decision.
Gospel: Jn 21:15-19 We are with Jesus and the apostles on the shores of the Sea of Galilee after the resurrection. Jesus asks Peter: “do you love me?”
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DO YOU LOVE ME?
The Gospel reading today speaks about Jesus’ last encounter with His disciples. It was an encounter of celebration, marked by tenderness and affection. In the end, Jesus calls Peter and asks him three times, “Do you love me?” Only after having received three times the same affirmative response, Jesus entrusts to Peter the mission of taking care of the sheep. Jesus does not ask many things of us. What he asks of us is to have much love.
“Do You Love Me?” Peter’s last encounter before Jesus’ death was a sad occasion, as he denied Christ three times. Now Christ gives Peter an opportunity to affirm a threefold pledge of his love. Love is the one, supreme condition for each of us who aspires to be an apostle. Peter’s love has been purified by his betrayal of Christ during the Passion. It has been chastened and humbled. Peter surrenders his love, into Christ’s hands, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Do my failures enable me to love Christ more, with greater trust?
“Can Love Be Commanded?” Can Jesus command love from his disciples? Yes, he can. Love can be commanded because it has first been given. He loves us, he makes us see and experience his love, and since he has ‘loved us first,’ love can also blossom as a response within us”.
“Love in Its Most Radical Form” It is characteristic of a mature love that it calls into play all man’s potentialities; it engages the whole man. Contact with the visible manifestations of God’s love can awaken within us a feeling of joy born of the experience of being loved.
Acknowledgment of the living God is one path towards love, and the ‘yes’ of our will to his will unites our intellect, will and memory in the all embracing act of love. As St Pope John Paul II, has phrased it so many times, true love is the gift of one’s entire self.
Res. Psalm: Ps 103: 1-2, 11-12, 19-20 The Lord has fixed his throne in heaven.
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