Reflections for the Third Sunday of Easter – May 4, 2025

Brothers & Sisters:

The Easter Season continues, and along with it “New

Lessons” to learn from the stories of the meeting

of the ‘Resurrected Jesus’ with his disciples.  There are so many points on which we could focus in the gospel appointed for today: Jesus meeting with his disciples who had returned to their old ways of fishing; Jesus having breakfast with them on the shore of the Sea of Galilee; and the conversation of Jesus with Peter.  Peter figures prominently in all the events, but I invite you to reflect on what his personal conversation with Jesus tells us about RENEWED DISCIPLESHIP. 

The idea of being a disciple of Jesus was most certainly abandoned when Peter said to a number of the disciples, “I am going fishing.”  They were returning to their former occupation before they had been called by Jesus to become his disciples.  Their efforts met with disastrous results before the ‘Resurrected Jesus’ entered the picture.  They had fished all night and caught nothing.  Did it bring back memories that they had been in that same situation before?  But now a deeper understanding of discipleship was necessary if they were to undertake the major task that Jesus had planned for them to carry out. 

The essential elements of the new quality of discipleship which I choose to refer to as RENEWED DISCIPLESHIP are highlighted in the conversation between Jesus and Peter.  The first question Peter was required to answer and which lies at the heart of renewed discipleship, was simply, “Do you love me?”  Far more important than engaging in any programme or abiding by any set of principles, was a wholehearted love relationship with Jesus.  Peter could only answer in a faltering voice, for he had failed that ‘love test’ before, when he along with the other disciples forsook Jesus and fled.  It was not a self-confident yes, but it was a yes, “You know that I love you.” 

The repetition of the question three times grieved Peter, for he had three times denied that he was a disciple of Jesus.  Knowing Jesus, as he did, left him in no doubt that he had been forgiven and was being reinstated, but his bold, brash, and blustering approach had to be replaced with an attitude of humility. He would be given the responsibility to shepherd the flock of Jesus, “Feed my lambs…feed my sheep.”  This would not be a matter of exercising authority over them or controlling them.  The lambs and the sheep did not belong to him, they belonged to Jesus. His task would be to feed them, to help them to be in communion with Jesus so that they could feed on him.

Added to the qualities of loving, and humbly serving Jesus, comes the final call, “Follow me.”  Peter had heard these words before in his first call to discipleship, but now that same call is infused with new meaning.  He knew for sure that following Jesus was a dangerous undertaking. It was the way of the Cross. 

Contributed!