7th Week of Easter 2021 - Friday - "Do you love me?"

 On these last two weekdays of Easter, our Gospel passage comes from the epilogue and the very last chapter of John’s Gospel.  As I mentioned recently, Saint John’s Gospel has often been called, “the Gospel of Love.”  It should be no surprise that the final story of the final chapter of his Gospel is a conversation about love.

“Do you love me?” Jesus asks. For Peter and the Popes that would succeed him the last two thousand years, loving Jesus would require a very specific, unique ministry within the Church. Peter and the Popes are tasked with feeding the flock: leading, shepherding, governing, teaching the flock of Christ, the Church. Peter’s exercise of love for the Church would be modeled after Jesus’ own love for the Church—the love of the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. 

“Do you love me” required specific activity for Peter. In fact, the Lord even prophesied that when Peter grows old, he too will stretch out his hands. Peter’s love for the flock would lead him stretching out his hands as he was martyred by crucifixion in AD 65.

“Do you love me, Peter?” Peter answered that question in his pouring out his life in service, willingly embracing the cross. And just as the Lord asked Peter that question, he asks it to each of us. “Do you love me?”

That question isn’t answered with a simple yes or no. That question is answered in the decisions we make today. It is answered in our faithfulness to our respective vocations as priest, spouses and parents, religious, single. It is answered in how we treat people, the time we offer them, the works of charity in which we engage in our community—feeding the hungry and instructing the ignorant—. It’s answered in our fervor in prayer, our willingness to do penance, our embrace of suffering for the good of others.

For we like Peter are called to lay down our lives in imitation of the love of the Good Shepherd for the good of the Church, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Let us pray to our Heavenly Father, confident that He is generous to those who call upon Him with faith.

For our young people preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation this weekend—that they may open their hearts to the gifts God has in store for them. Let us pray to the Lord.

For our President and all elected government representatives, may the Holy Spirit grant them wisdom and guide them to promote domestic tranquility, national unity, respect for religious freedom, and a greater reverence for the sanctity of Human Life. Let us pray to the Lord.

Like the apostles gathered with Our Lady in the Cenacle, may the Church grow in Marian devotion this month, especially in devotion to the Holy Rosary. Let us pray to the Lord.

For those experiencing any kind of hardship or sorrow, isolation, addiction, or disease: that they may know the peace and consolation of the Good Shepherd. Let us pray to the Lord.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for the deceased members of our family, friends, and parish, for those who have fought and died for our freedom, and for …for whom this mass is offered. Let us pray to the Lord.

Gracious Father, hear the prayers of your pilgrim Church, grant us your grace and lead us to the glory of your kingdom, through Christ Our Lord.