“Simon, do you love me”

Reflection on John 21:1-19

In an earlier reflection, I spoke about a poster that bore the statement: "God allows U-turns!” After we have strayed into the pathways of sin and shame, if we repent and return to God our Father -remember the "Prodigal" Father of the Prodigal Son (Luke 1511-32) - he will not only forgive us, but he will give us a chance to turn a new leaf and begin to write the story of our lives from scratch.

One very clear example of that is what Jesus did to Simon Peter. Jesus had chosen him to lead his Church. He had even changed his name from Simon to Cephas (Peter, meaning Rock), and promised that he would build his Church on that Rock (Matthew 16: 17-19).

When trouble came after Jesus was arrested, Peter fell with a thud. He denied his Master, not once but three times. One of them was before a mere maid. Ironically, Jesus had earlier

Warned Peter that he was going to do just that. But Peter had boasted that even if he had to go to prison or die with Jesus, he would never do such a thing. It turned out that his boast was just that: a boast and nothing more. It was empty. Even before anybody had threatened him with anything, Peter denied his Master. No wonder, when he heard the cock crow, he went outside and wept bitterly (Matthew 26:69-75).

After the resurrection, Jesus would have been fully justified to take away the leadership of his Church from Peter. He could have concluded that Peter was so unreliable that it was risky to leave him in charge of the Church. But Jesus did not do any such thing. Instead, he gave Peter a chance to reverse his threefold denial with a threefold profession of love for him. Three times he asked Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Three times Peter said, ''Yes, Lord, you know I love you." Three times Jesus said to him: "Feed my lambs", "Look after my sheep", "Feed my sheep." Jesus simply meant to reassure Peter that he would still be in charge of the Church, the leadership of the Church would not be taken away from him as a result of his denial of Jesus.

After experiencing the forgiveness of Jesus, Peter became a changed person. We see that in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 5:27-32. 40-41). The same person who denied Jesus in the presence of a maid would now confront the high priest himself and tell him to his face that "Obedience to God comes before obedience to men", and then proceed to give testimony of the resurrection to the entire Sanhedrin, the Supreme Council of the nation of Israel. What a transformation!

That is exactly what can happen to anyone who experiences the forgiveness of God. He can be so thoroughly transformed or converted -to use a more technical term- that he will do great things for God. That was what happened to Saul of Tarsus after his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. The same thing happened to Augustine of Hippo after his conversion from a wayward life. The same thing can happen to us if and when we experience the forgiveness of God. We too will do great things for God. Nobody will be able to stop us and we will not be deterred by anything, because we shall be obeying God rather than men, like Peter and his companions.