[Jesus] said to him the third time,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time,
“Do you love me?” and he said to him,
“Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.” (Jn 21:17)
One of the things that we know about Jesus is that He always gave and always gives people an opportunity to come back to Him. That is what is operative in today’s Gospel.
Peter had denied Jesus on the night of His arrest. Peter denied Jesus not just once but three times.
After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples. In the process, He asked Peter not once, but three times, if Peter loved Jesus. The first time, Peter said yes. The second time, Peter said yes. By the third time, Peter became greatly distressed. I am sure that it was because he knew what Jesus was doing. Peter remembered that he had denied his Lord three times. And Jesus was giving Peter a chance to make it up.
Jesus is so good.
He lets us come back to Him over and over again.
We have often told the Lord that we loved Him.
Then, after our profession of love, we turned around and sinned which hurt our relationship with God.
But the Lord did not, does not, abandon us. Instead, He gives us a chance to come back to Him.
He is asking each and every one of us a simple question today: “Do you love me?”
How are you going to answer?
FAITH ACTION: As you spend some quality time with the Lord today in quiet prayer, letting Him know just how much you love Him, ask Him to give you the grace that you need to serve His people.