Posted on May 2, 2025 View all Gospel Reflection
“Do you love me?”
As we continue to journey forth into the Easter season, we hear in today’s Gospel the encounter between Jesus and St. Peter on the shore of the sea. This scene recalls two previous scenes in Peter’s life with Jesus. The first is how Jesus called to Peter from the shore after a fruitless night of fishing. Back in Luke 5:2-22, Jesus tells Peter to put out into the deep (duc in altum). Then, when Peter sees the great catch of fish he falls to the feet of Jesus and begs Jesus to depart because he is a sinful man.
Today we see Peter in the boat again having caught nothing after the entire night. Jesus says “Cast your net over the right side of boat and you will find something.” That “something” was a catch so large that they were not able to pull it in because of the number of fish. To his credit, when Peter heard that it was the Lord, he jumped into the sea and ran to the Lord. One thing that is curious is what happens next. Jesus asks him to bring some of the fish he just caught and Peter went over and dragged the net ashore full of the one hundred and fifty-three fish. It almost looks like the others were unable to bring the net ashore, but Peter was able to do it himself.
One aspect of this could be seen as a confirmation of Peter’s role as the first amongst the disciples and as the one to whom Jesus would entrust leadership of his church. Strikingly against what seems to be such a positive affirmation of where Jesus is leading Peter, there is the other detail of the charcoal fire on the shore. This scene is eerily similar to that fateful night when Peter was warming himself by the charcoal fire on Holy Thursday. The very place where he would deny even knowing Jesus or being his disciple.
It certainly seems that the Gospel author John is setting up a direct relationship between these two settings. This is confirmed when Jesus asks Peter “do you love me?” three times. It was the counterbalance to the three times that Peter had denied Jesus. After this third exchange, Peter humbly responds to Jesus “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Missing here is the bravado which Peter often displayed. Recall on Holy Thursday when Peter denied Jesus’ prediction that he would betray him, and Peter said that he would defend him even with his very life… but then did not. Now he responds in truth that Jesus knows everything even his own weaknesses.
It is then that Jesus turns things around. He predicts how before Peter did what he wanted, but now he will be led to where he does not want to go. Then he says “Follow me.” After he had said to him “feed my sheep.” Reflecting on this tender exchange with the Lord we are invited to reflect on how our sinfulness can cause us to deny the Lord in our own life – even in spite of our love for him. We need to become more like St. Peter. We need to follow Peter’s example and respond to the Lord that He know everything. He knows we love him, and he knows that we are weak and sinful. Let us allow the Lord to lead us through the guidance of his church here on earth towards our final encounter with our Lord in heaven at the end of our own days.
