Acts 25:13-21 / Jn 21:15-19
Love, they say, makes the world go round. But what is it? Those warm, mushy feelings that well up inside us? Those tears that flow when we watch our first communicants walk up the aisle in the little white suits and dresses? No, those moments are charming, but they’re not love. They’re sentimentality, which comes and goes faster than we’d care to admit.
Love has a different shape. It’s a determined desiring of the best for the other, and a willingness to do whatever is necessary to make the best happen. In sum, true love, by definition, is faithful and has no limits.
In today’s gospel, Jesus — in the time after His resurrection — asks Peter three times whether he loves Him. The repeated question was an echo of the three times that Peter had denied even knowing Jesus. How those questions must have seared his heart!
But those three questions are for us too. They’re probing the seriousness of our commitment to the Lord. It’s highly unlikely that any of us will be called to witness to our faith by martyrdom. But every one of us is called to witness our love for Jesus daily by being true to the mission He’s given us.
Be like Peter, a man who made monumental mistakes, but knew how to go forward. Be faithful now in your love of our good Lord Jesus.
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