04/05/2025

Third Sunday of Easter

“Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.”

In the Song of Songs (8,6) we read, "set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm: for love is as strong as death."

However, late at night, after Jesus was arrested, Peter bottled it. Fear supressed his feelings of love.

Three times he denied he knew Jesus. Now, by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus asks Peter three times to admit – to express – his deeper feelings. 

As these are positive, he is still put in charge of the followers of  Jesus. “Feed MY lambs. Feed MY sheep. They are not yours. But I want – and trust - you to be the shepherd of my flock. 

As the new Pope is elected, he too will remember that the flock over which he must care – you and me included – belong to Jesus – and therefore need to be carefully looked after.

If we look back over our own lives, we might remember doing something similar. Temptations can smother  our deeper feelings of loving God and we can fall, we can sin.

Every morning, on my way to my morning exercises and shower, as I take off my pyjamas I always say, “God, you know everything. You know that I love you”  and kiss the little cross and medal around my neck.– whatever I might be tempted to do – or not do – that day.

It’s like a pre-emptive act of contrition. I know that, on a bad day, my love is not always as strong as death.