NOT PERFECT LOVE BUT LOVE PERFECTED

Friday in the 7th Week of Easter
Jn 21:15-19

Because Simon Peter’s profession of love is threefold, the Gospel today also often reminds us of his threefold denial of Jesus. Just as Simon Peter denied Jesus three times so did he express his love for Jesus thrice. Various writers have said much about Simon Peter’s denial of Jesus. However, what can we say about his love of Jesus?

First, Simon Peter’s love for Jesus was not a perfect love but love perfected. It was not a perfect love on day one. However, as the days went on, even as he blunders every so often, as he experienced how much Jesus loved him and not how much he loved Jesus, he grew more and more in loved with Jesus. His was a love for Jesus that is similar to ours. We do not begin with a perfect love for Jesus; our love for Him is perfected, as His love is made perfect in us.

Second, Simon Peter’s love for Jesus was more than the love that the other disciples had for Jesus. “Simon, son of John,” Jesus asked him, “do you love Me more than these others do?” Simon Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, You know I love You.” Interestingly though, Simon Peter did not qualify his love for Jesus. He did not say that he loved Jesus more than those others did. He simply said, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.” Here, perhaps, Simon Peter was being truthful and careful. He was truthful in saying that he loved Jesus but, at the same time, careful not to boast that he loved Him more than the others did because he knew that. like the others, he, too, was guilty of loving the Lord less. Yet, still, Simon Peter loved Jesus more than the others did because his failure did not deter him from following Jesus. Quite often the measure of our love is not in the number of times we do not fall but in the number of times we rise again for love of Jesus. Bl. Teresa of Calcutta said, “Jesus does not call us to be successful but to be faithful.” The fidelity of our love is seen not in our success; failures have their way of making fidelity shine even through our lack of success in loving.

Third, Simon Peter’s love for Jesus was a call unto greater love of others. His great love for Jesus must be translated into his sacrificial love for the Church that Jesus entrusted to his care. Each time that Simon Peter professed his love for Jesus, Jesus commands him to feed and tend His sheep. Loving Jesus can be very easy if loving Him means having no responsibility for others whom Jesus loves too. The challenge of loving Jesus is in the ability to see, recognize, serve, and love Him in others. The ultimate test of loving Jesus, as it was for Simon Peter and many lovers of Jesus, is in dying for others whom the love of Jesus reaches out to. It is worth noting that after Simon Peter professed his love for Jesus and after Jesus entrusted to Simon Peter the feeding and tending of His sheep, Jesus described to Simon Peter the manner by which he was to give glory to God.

We have denied and continue to deny Jesus many times because of our sins. Nevertheless, this should not give us reason to give up and stop loving Jesus. On the contrary, we should all the more cling to Jesus and tell Him, “Lord, You know everything; You know I love You.” Because St. Paul says, “Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more” (Rom 6:20), even sin makes perfect the love we have for Jesus.