Last week we touched on the church year in which we followed the life of Jesus Christ here on earth. This is the 5th Sunday after Easter and we are in that period of 40 days between the Resurrection of Jesus and his Ascension. For the growing group of followers, which we may think of as the budding church, it must have been a confusing time. They had been crushed by his death on the Cross, overjoyed by the wonder of his resurrection, looking forward prayerfully with hope and wonder to the future. Into this unsettled community, would come those uplifting and enlightening moments when the risen Lord came among them, talked with them, ate with them and blessed them. Each time he left, they must have been filled with expectancy for the next visit and questions they would ask. I suggest that this too, could be a questioning time for us.
I went on my quest of the scriptures and found at the end of St. John’s Gospel that it is Jesus himself who asks the questions and not of the whole group but of one person – “Simon, do you love me”? It was one question to one person but it was repeated three times. That hurt Simon Peter but it also came with a request of trust. “Feed my lambs”, “Tend my sheep”, “Feed my sheep”. He asks each one of us the same question “Do you love me”? That is the question we must ask ourselves. If the answer “yes” , to us is entrusted the task of reaching out with love to others.
No comments:
Post a Comment