The Power of Love (Friday, Easter 7, 2021)

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The proverb “Once bitten, twice shy” simply tells us that “an unpleasant experience induces caution”. When a student fails a subject, he/she does not need to be told to make effort not to fail again. Of course, the student must be tested again and again in order to ascertain whether he/she has got it right. There is always room for improvement.

 

Peter denied Jesus when He was on trial. His denial carried more weight than the desertion of the rest of the apostles because he denied a man who entrusted him with a very sensitive task of leadership. After the resurrection, Jesus tested Peter once again in order to confirm Peter’s readiness to witness to him (cf. Jn. 21:15-19). He asked him one question three times.


Jesus didn’t ask to ascertain the keenness of Peter’s intellectual acumen. He didn’t ask to know the depth of his mystical knowledge on spiritual matters. He didn’t ask to assess Peter’s dexterity in rolling out biblical quotations. He didn’t ask to know the frequency of his fasting, tithing, speaking in tongues or the number of times he can pray. Jesus simply asked Peter, “Do you love me?”

 

By his response, Peter recommitted himself to be an agent of love. Consequently, Jesus revealed to him that LOVE is not love when it is only professed with the lips: LOVE becomes love when it inspires a sense of responsibility and concretizes itself in responsible loving actions. And that is why Jesus told him, “Feed my sheep; tend my lambs”. Of course, Jesus did not fail to remind him that love must unavoidably come with a cross. To this Peter ultimately responded when he laid down his life in Rome during the persecution of Nero in 64/65 AD.


As he went about preaching the gospel, Paul also responded to the task of love: “feeding” the “sheep” and suffering on account of it (cf Acts 25:13-21). All in all, love must be demonstrated in concrete expressions of responsibility and acceptance of the cross.

 

We have heard of the commitment with which our forebears responded to the task of love as they ministered to Christ in hostile territories. In them, the power of love was real and palpable. But in our time, the power of love, in the main, has been engulfed by love for power, ingrained hatred and doctrinal arrogance. Hating and arguing over trifles won’t take us anywhere. If Paul, Peter and the rest of the apostles had wasted their time arguing and hating over issues of no importance, they would not have succeeded in extending the flame of faith to us.


Prayer:

May the love of Christ continue to compel us, Amen! 





Have a blessed day!

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