John 20:19–23 ESV – Bible Gateway

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For Pentecost, like the Ascension, the Gospel reading, in a sense, is trumped by the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles; which goes into more details. In this case, our Gospel reading takes place on the night of the Ressurection when Jesus first meets with the majority of the Apostles in the upper room. For the Ascension, Jesus leaves the Apostles who are in a state of joy and are fully preparing themselves for the promise of the Holy Spirit spending time day and night in prayer.

This reading shows the Apostles in the midst of uncertainty and fear. They know something is going on and they have reports of Jesus’ return, but also knew their own precarious position regarding the authorities.

The Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture for this Gospel points out:

As he did in regard to Mary Magdalene, John provides insight into the spiritual disposition of Jesus’ disciples as they are gathered in Jerusalem. Mary came to Jesus’ tomb “while it was still dark” (20:1). The disciples are similarly gathered in the evening darkness, †signifying the absence of Christ the light and their own hopelessness. [1]

Peter Kreeft notes:

The disciples were cowering in fear behind locked doors because they thought, quite naturally, that those who had succeeded in killing Jesus would now come after them too. But Christ came through their locked doors, and he also comes through ours. For it’s not just keys but fear that locks our doors, especially the fear that God does not wholly love us and understand us and our weaknesses; that we cannot trust him completely. And pride, and the refusal to admit that we are in the wrong. But faith and love cast out fear. Even weak faith and love let him in. Open the door to him one inch, and he will come in a mile. [2]

Jesus appears amidst them and tells them “Peace be with you.” I think it is difficult to really envision this scene and the apostle’s reaction. The doors are locked to prevent intrusion and Jesus appears directly among them. They would be so very aware that the doors are locked. They truly were in need of that peace that Jesus was giving them in this circumstance. Plus what would they make of the fact that right after this Jesus shows them his hands and side, a demonstration of the wounds that still appear in his glorified body.

Returning to the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture:

The presence of the wounds of crucifixion on the risen Jesus’ body is significant. They indicate that the body resurrected to glory is the same one that died on the cross (see Luke 24:39). Resurrection is not the return of a human being to ordinary mortal life but total transformation into a glorified mode of existence. As St. Paul wrote, the natural body is transfigured by the Holy Spirit into a glorified, “spiritual body” (1 Cor 15:44). The wounds on Jesus’ resurrected body reveal that he is forever fixed in the act of love in which he died. The love and sacrifice that he offered on the cross are forever present before the Father as “expiation for our sins, and … for those of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). Jesus’ wounds also signify that the victory of the resurrection comes only through the cross. Similarly, the Lamb in the book of Revelation bears the wound of his slaughter by which he accomplished the work of redemption (Rev 5:6, 9). In this way, St. Thomas Aquinas, drawing on the Venerable Bede, can speak of the wounds on Jesus’ resurrected body as “trophies” of his victory.[3]

Jesus shows them his wounds to show them that he can heal their wounds. That he would be healing and preparing them so that they in turn can heal and prepare others. Jesus makes this explicit when he repeats a blessing of peace on them and then tells them that he is passing on a mission to them given by his father. When Jesus breathes on them and institutes the sacrament of reconciliation, he is equipping them in the good news, the Evangelium, for the forgiveness of sins. The very healing we all need the most. The shalom Jesus gives them, they, in turn, will give and pass on to others who will find true peace in this sacrament. There is and will always be woundedness in the body of Christ, but there will also always be access to a remedy.

CCC 1462 Forgiveness of sins brings reconciliation with God, but also with the Church. Since ancient times the bishop, visible head of a particular Church, has thus rightfully been considered to be the one who principally has the power and ministry of reconciliation: he is the moderator of the penitential discipline. Priests, his collaborators, exercise it to the extent that they have received the commission either from their bishop (or religious superior) or the Pope, according to the law of the Church

In his book titled “The Life of Christ”, Venerable Fulton J. Sheen wrote:

“Then Our Lord breathed on them as He conferred some power of the Holy Spirit. When love is deep, it is always speechless or wordless; God’s love is so deep that it can be expressed humanly by a sigh or a breath. Now that the Apostles had learned to lisp the alphabet of Redemption, He breathed on them as a sign and an earnest of what was to come. It was but a cloud that would precede the plenteous rain; better still, it was the breath of the Spirit’s influence and a foretelling of the rushing wind of Pentecost. As He had breathed into Adam the breath of natural life, so now He breathed into His Apostles, the foundation of His Church, the breath of spiritual life. As man became the image of God in virtue of the soul that was breathed into him, so now they became the image of Christ as the power of the Spirit was breathed into them. The Greek word used to express His breathing on them is employed nowhere else in the New Testament; but it is the very word which the Greek translators of the Hebrew used to describe God’s breathing a living soul into Adam. Thus there was a new creation as the first fruit of the Redemption.…

“Three times the Holy Spirit is mentioned with some external sign; as a dove at Christ’s baptism betokening His innocence and Divine Sonship; as fiery tongues on the day of Pentecost as a sign of the Spirit’s power to convert the world; and as the breath of the Risen Christ with all of its regenerative power.”[4]

The mission that the Holy Spirit empowers is not for the Apostles and their descendants alone. We are also sent forth into the world to empower the spread of the good news.

St. Cyril of Alexandria wrote:

All of us who have received one and the same Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit, are in a sense blended together with one another and with God. For if Christ, together with the Father’s and his own Spirit, comes to dwell in each of us, though we are many, still the Spirit is one and undivided. He binds together the spirits of each and every one of us, … and makes all appear as one in him. For just as the power of Christ’s sacred flesh unites those in whom it dwells into one body, I think that in the same way the one and undivided Spirit of God, who dwells in all, leads all into spiritual unity.[5]

Sources

• Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Year C
• The Gospel of John (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition
• Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

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1. Francis Martin, William M. Wright IV, The Gospel of John (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)  ↩
2. Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Year C  ↩
3. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologica 3, q. 54, a. 4.  ↩
4. Fulton Sheen, Life of Christ (New York: Image Books/Doubleday, 1990), 420.  ↩
5. St. Cyril of Alexandria, In Jo. ev., 11, 11: PG 74, 561.  ↩

Luke 6:39–45 ESV – Bible Gateway

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One of the themes of Jesus’s post-Resurrection appearances is an emphasis on the need that the Christ would suffer. On the first day of his resurrection, talking to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, he says in Luke 24:26

“Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

That same night tells a gathering of the Apostles in Luke 24:45:

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, ⁴⁶ and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, ⁴⁷ and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

The very purpose of his suffering was for the forgiveness of sins, and it was this that was to be proclaimed to all nations.

The Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture comments:

In the next part of the scene, Jesus instructs his disciples about the fulfillment of Scripture and then announces their future mission. First, he reiterates how it was necessary that everything written about him in the Old Testament come to pass (18:31; 22:37). The two verbs used—must and fulfilled—have been repeated throughout the Gospel and here emphasize one last time that all the events of Jesus’ life have unfolded in accord with God’s plan, especially as revealed in Scripture. As he did with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (24:32), he thus opened their minds to understand the scriptures. Whereas there he referred to two parts of the Old Testament (“Moses and all the prophets,” 24:27), here he indicates three parts: the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms. In particular, he highlights that the Scriptures foretold that the Messiah (24:26) would both suffer and rise from the dead on the third day (Hosea 6:2).

Second, he explains that repentance, for the forgiveness [aphesis] of sins, will be preached [kēryssō] in his name. This is the mission now announced to the apostles and the other disciples. Indeed, in Acts, repentance and forgiveness of sins through the name of Jesus will become the core message of the apostles’ preaching (“kerygma”). The beginning of the apostles’ mission in Jerusalem will thus recall the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry in Nazareth, when he read from Isaiah and announced a jubilee, explaining that he was sent to proclaim liberty (Luke 4:18; kēryssō and aphesis). Now this jubilee is being extended in time and space: from Jerusalem the liberty that is forgiveness will be preached to all the nations(Acts 1:8). The apostles and disciples will be the witnesses of all these things about Jesus: his words and deeds (Acts 1:1)—his life, death, and resurrection.[1]

Jesus then says he is sending the promise of the Father to them and that they are to wait in the city until they are clothed with power from on high. He then leads them out of Jerusalem. “The Greek verb exagō (lead or bring out), which occurs only here in Luke’s Gospel, is the verb typically used in the †Septuagint—and even by Luke himself in Acts—to describe the exodus from Egypt under Moses.”[1]

In this last chapter of Luke, we can lose a sense of time as events move quickly from the events of that first Easter Sunday to the Ascension. Only through Luke’s “The Acts of the Apostles” that we get more time cues, such as the Ascension falling on the 40th day.
John Bergsma makes an interesting observation regarding verse 49:

“Behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you,” is in the Greek present tense. Translated quite literally, the verse reads, “Look, I send the promise of my Father upon you.” This is often thought to be a reference to the sending of the Spirit at Pentecost, but again, the verb is present, not future. Plausibly, these words of the Lord were uttered while he “breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:22, RSV2CE). In my view, Luke 24:44–49 is an independent account of the same meeting in the Upper Room with the Apostles and bestowal of the Spirit recorded in John 20:19–23.[2]

Jesus takes them as far as Bethany. This village on the Mount of Olives was earlier mentioned only when Jesus was drawing near to Jerusalem (Luke 19:29). It was then and there that he was acclaimed “king”. His triumphal entry then is now completed by his “triumphal exit.” At his transfiguration, Jesus had discussed with Moses and Elijah his own “exodus” from Jerusalem. As a prophet like Moses, Jesus now completes his exodus from Jerusalem to heaven. Moreover, as a prophet like Elijah (Jesus is taken up to heaven, and his followers will then receive his Spirit[1]

Before leaving, Jesus blesses them, lifting his hands. Early Church Fathers referenced the Gospel of Luke as the gospel of Jesus’ priesthood. This was a gesture explicitly used by the high priests starting with Aaron.

Brant Pitre says:

Luke here is deliberately emphasizing Jesus’ identity as priest. So he’s not just a prophet, he’s not just the king of Israel, Jesus is also the Messianic priest, the Messianic high priest. You can actually see this if you look at Luke’s gospel as a whole, because if you recall, how did Luke’s gospel begin? It began with the priest, Zechariah, going into the Temple to offer the incense and then coming out of the temple, and what were the people waiting for him to do? They were waiting for him to give them his priestly blessing. But he can’t do it because he’s mute after doubting Gabriel’s message to him about the birth of John the Baptist. So by contrast, then the gospel ends with Jesus (the true high priest), not mute at all, but blessing the Apostles and then telling them to go out and bear witness to the good news of his Passion, Death and Resurrection. So it’s kind of like an inclusio (scholars call it this way), beginning and ending with a similar theme to reveal Jesus’ identity as high priest.[3]

in Paragraph 662 of the Catechism:

“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.”The lifting up of Jesus on the cross signifies and announces his lifting up by his Ascension into heaven and indeed begins it. Jesus Christ, the one priest of the new and eternal Covenant, “entered, not into a sanctuary made by human hands … but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” There Christ permanently exercises his priesthood, for he “always lives to make intercession” for “those who draw near to God through him.”As “high priest of the good things to come,” he is the center and the principal actor of the liturgy that honors the Father in heaven.

I was thinking further of these time cues, and most are relatively straightforward significations, such as the 40 days Jesus spent with them to purify and lead them. The Holy Spirit comes on Pentecost, 50 days after the Passover and the beginning of the harvest season, bringing the first fruits to the Temple in thanksgiving to God.

During this period that Jesus was with them, they were remarkably strengthened. Jesus’s departure this time would not force them into bewilderment. They returned to Jerusalem with great joy and continually praised God in the Temple. During the Agony in the Garden the Apostles were not even able to stay awake and pray with Jesus. This time they would not only go to the Temple and praise God, but to meet together in the upper room each night, preparing themselves for Jesus’s promises.

I also started thinking about the significance of the nine days they stayed in the upper room until the day of Pentecost, which is sometimes called the birthday of the Church. What I thought of in this connection is a symbol of nine days mirroring the nine months of human gestation. The Church was born into the world fueled by prayer. Prayer fueled first by God and through grace helps us catch fire in prayer for the Church. You cannot receive tongues of fire without preparation and being docile to the movements of the Holy Spirit.

One last note in regards to Jesus ascending into Heaven. St Thomas Aquinas explains that it was inappropriate for Christ to remain on earth after the Resurrection, whereas it was appropriate that he should ascend into heaven, because, although his risen body was already a glorified one, it now receives an increase in glory due to the dignity of the place to which it ascends (cf. Summa theologiae, 3, 57, 1).

Sources

• The Gospel of Luke, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Rev. Pablo T. Gadenz
• Navarre, Saint Luke’s Gospel (2005)
• Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Year C
• Catholic Productions, Commentaries by Brant Pitre
• The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year C – John Bergsma
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition
• Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

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1. The Gospel of Luke, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Rev. Pablo T. Gadenz  ↩
2. The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year C, John Bergsma  ↩
3. Catholic Productions, Brant Pitre  ↩

John 10:27–30 ESV – Bible Gateway

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Steve Ray in his commentary on the Gospel of John references this fact:

“The relationship between sheep and shepherd is quite different in Palestine. In Britain the sheep are largely kept for killing, but in Palestine largely for their wool. It thus happens that in Palestine the sheep are often with the shepherd for years and often they have names by which the shepherd calls them.… It is strictly true that the sheep know and understand the eastern shepherd’s voice; and that they will never answer to the voice of a stranger.… ‘The shepherd calls sharply from time to time, to remind them of his presence. They know his voice, and follow on; but, if a stranger call, they stop short, lift up their heads in alarm, and if it is repeated, they turn and flee, because they know not the voice of a stranger. I have made the experiment repeatedly’.… Every detail of the shepherd’s life lights up the picture of the Good Shepherd whose sheep hear his voice and whose constant care is for his flock.”[1]

At the surface level, this gives some insight into this metaphor. If we come to really know Jesus, we will not answer the call of his imitators. We will not be tempted by even the good things of the world and forget that he gave them to us. We will prioritize our relationship with Jesus over all worldly things.

One day I wish to know Jesus enough to say that I truly know Jesus. That I will not only hear his voice but trust and follow him. I know facts about Jesus, but that is not the knowledge that I truly need.

Peter Kreeft writes regarding this passage:

What kind of knowledge is that? Personal knowledge, not just factual knowledge. Not knowledge about a person but knowledge of a person. Most languages have two different words for those two different kinds of knowledge; English has only one. In French, they’re connaitre and savoir, in German they’re kennen and wissen. One kind of knowledge is like marriage; the other is like science. One kind is a personal relationship; the other is a set of ideas. Ideas are terribly important, but you don’t get to heaven by a set of ideas, by passing a theology test. It’s not what you know but who you know. Jesus’ sheep follow the good shepherd because they know him; they hear his voice and recognize it.[2]

In the Old Testament to know someone was used as a metaphor for sexual intimacy. The type of knowing God has for each of us is the most profound intimacy. We are totally open before him and he loves us. The intimacy of friendship is what he calls us to as his adopted children. He lifts us up in grace so that we can reply in gratitude and thanksgiving.

Jesus goes on to promise a supernatural life that never ends. A promise of salvation in that we will not experience eternal death. That he will protect us more so than a good shepherd protects his flock. There is nothing that can affect this, but our own will. Nobody can snatch us from his protection, but we can wander off and forego the protection of the shepherd.

Theophylact makes this point when he wrote:

But how then did Judas perish? Because he did not continue to the end. Christ speaks of them who persevere. If any sheep is separated from the flock, and wanders from the Shepherd, it incurs danger immediately.[3]

There is a lot going on here when Jesus identifies himself as our shepherd. An identification that directly invokes the famous lines in Psalm 23. In Ezekiel 34, Ezekiel makes a prophecy against the shepherds of Israel, who failed to hear the words of the Lord. God says “I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.” How he will care for them and also bring judgment to those who preyed on the sheep. Jesus identifies himself as this very shepherd referenced and then lays it out saying “I and the Father are one.”

Historically there is much quibbling over what Jesus meant by saying this. There was no confusion among those who heard him identify himself with God. They picked up stones and intended to kill him for committing blasphemy. There had been claimants before and after Jesus to be the messiah. This claim in itself was not considered blasphemy. It was not a capital offense. There was no confusion between what Jesus said and the implication of this to the hearers.

Still, even if they had given some time to reflect on Jesus’ words and his identification with the Father, what he said was shocking and this truth about God’s interior life could only be known through divine revelation. The early Church would grapple with this and all the heresies that tried to simplify what Jesus said.

Paragraph 590 of the Catechism says:

Only the divine identity of Jesus’ person can justify so absolute a claim as “He who is not with me is against me”; and his saying that there was in him “something greater than Jonah, … greater than Solomon,” something “greater than the Temple”; his reminder that David had called the Messiah his Lord,and his affirmations, “Before Abraham was, I Am”; and even “I and the Father are one.”

Going on to say in Paragraph 256:

St. Gregory of Nazianzus, also called “the Theologian,” entrusts this summary of Trinitarian faith to the catechumens of Constantinople:

Above all guard for me this great deposit of faith for which I live and fight, which I want to take with me as a companion, and which makes me bear all evils and despise all pleasures: I mean the profession of faith in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I entrust it to you today. By it I am soon going to plunge you into water and raise you up from it. I give it to you as the companion and patron of your whole life. I give you but one divinity and power, existing one in three, and containing the three in a distinct way. Divinity without disparity of substance or nature, without superior degree that raises up or inferior degree that casts down … the infinite co-naturality of three infinites. Each person considered in himself is entirely God … the three considered together.… I have not even begun to think of unity when the Trinity bathes me in its splendor. I have not even begun to think of the Trinity when unity grasps me.[4]

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Sources

• Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Year C
• Catholic Productions, Commentaries by Brant Pitre
• St. John’s Gospel: A Bible Study Guide and Commentary for Individuals and Groups: Ray, Stephen K.
• Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers, Volume 4: St. John – Verbum
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition
• Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

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1. St. John’s Gospel: A Bible Study Guide and Commentary for Individuals and Groups. Steve Ray, 2002  ↩
2. Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Year C  ↩
3. Theophylact, Archbishop of Ohrid, A.D. 1078. Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers: St. John.  ↩
4. St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio 40, 41: PG 36, 417.↩︎  ↩

John 21:1–19 ESV – Bible Gateway

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Today’s reading discusses the third appearance of Jesus to a group of Apostles. Peter tells six other apostles that he will go fishing, and they agree to join him. They all labor that night to no avail. There has been discussion regarding their return to fishing and its reason.

Pope St. Gregory.

“It may be asked why Peter, who was a fisherman before his conversion, returned to fishing, when it is said, ‘No man putting his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.’ ” St. Augustine on the other hand said, “If the disciples had done this after the death of Jesus, and before His resurrection, we should have imagined that they did it in despair. But now after that He has risen from the grave, after seeing the marks of His wounds, after receiving, by means of His breathing, the Holy Ghost, all at once they become what they were before, fishers, not of men, but of fishes. We must remember then that they were not forbidden by their apostleship from earning their livelihood by a lawful craft, provided they had no other means of living.”

This makes the most sense of their motive, just as St. Paul would return to his craft of tentmaking to support himself. In Mark 16, it is clear that Jesus tells the women to tell the apostles to go ahead to Galilee. So they are where they should be awaiting Jesus’ arrival there.

Jesus is standing on the shore and calls out to them, asking, “Children, do you have any fish?” None of the apostles recognize him. This is like the other post-resurrection appearances with Mary Magdalene and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. He then gives them instructions on where to cast their nets, and they comply. This seems rather strange at first that they would listen to instructions given by some stranger, especially after a night of effort from men who were professionals of their trade.

Steve Ray, in his commentary on John, clarifies this:[1]

It happens very often that the man with the hand-net must rely on the advice of someone on shore, who tells him to cast either to the left or the right, because in the clear water he can often see a shoal of fish invisible to the man in the water.’ Jesus was acting as guide to his fishermen friends, just as people still do today.

The result is a miraculous catch such that they were overwhelmed to handle this. At this point, John recognizes Jesus and states this fact. Peter Kreeft asks and answers, “how did they then eventually recognize him? The answer, in that case, is clear: they recognized him by what he did.”[2] Peter puts on his outer garment and jumps into the sea to get to shore.

There is just so much going on here. The large catch and the difficulty of handling it and only being able to drag it. Peter returned to the catch and hauled the net ashore.

Give a man a fish, and he is satisfied for one day. Give a man 153 fish, and he will spend the rest of Church history trying to understand the symbolism involved. There are plenty of theories projected from St. Jerome and St. Augustine onto the present day. Some very complicated mathematical proofs, such as from Augustine. Jeff Cavins says the number 153 is the numerical total for the Hebrew phrase Ani Elohim, which means “I am God.”

Other symbolism entails the untorn net, which has been interpreted to represent the unity of the apostles or the Church. That the Church will prevail to the end of time, holding its adherents.

We then come to the theologically and symbolically rich telling of Jesus’ questions to Peter.

From John Bergsma:[3]

Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me more than these?” (v. 15). The question is ambiguous. Who are the “these”? Does Jesus mean:

• (1) “Do you love me more than [you love] these [other men]?” In other words, Do you love me above all other persons in your life?
• (2) “Do you love me more than these [fish]?” In other words, Do you love me more than your profession, your way of life, your livelihood, your “comfort zone”?
• (3) “Do you love me more than these [other men do]?” In other words, Do you have greater love for me than others do? Do you excel in love so as to be suitable to excel also in authority?

Ambiguity abounds in the Gospel of John, and I think it is intentional. All three interpretations may well be meant. Jesus is eliciting from Peter a comprehensive love to correspond to the comprehensive role of shepherding that he will bestow.

It has long been commented on that these three questions parallel Peter’s three denials. Less commented on in that in both of these episodes in the Gospel of John, a “charcoal fire” is mentioned.

Ascension Press’ study “Jesus – The Way, the Truth, and the Life” references:

There are only two places in the New Testament where a charcoal fire is mentioned, both in John. The first being Peter’s triple denial that he knew Jesus, the second being Peter’s triple affirmation that he loved Jesus. There is an interesting detail about charcoal fires over a bonfire. A charcoal fire requires closeness to get warmed. Peter was recognized because of his closeness of people trying to get warm in the courtyard. Our affirmation of love for Jesus can only be close, not a distance, or it is not affirmation of love at all.

There has often been much made of the underlying Greek words Jesus used. John Bergsma offers an important caveat:

This gives the impression that Jesus asks twice, “Do you love me with divine love?” And Peter responds twice, “I love you with brotherly love.” And at last Jesus condescends to Peter’s capabilities: “Do you love me with brotherly love?” thus implying that such love will suffice: Jesus will accept what Peter, no longer brash and now painfully cognizant of his human weakness, knows he can offer. This interpretation is suggestive, but it must be entertained with caution because both phileō and agapaō are used elsewhere in John for both divine and human love.[4]

Other biblical scholars, such as Michael Barber, also say that the different meanings of these two words are a myth most famously popularized by C.S. Lewis.

Peter is hurt not because of the different Greek words used, but the question is asked of him three times in parallel to his three-fold denial. The awareness of our sinful actions often hurts us the most.

Jesus is “condescending to Peter’s human weakness.”[5] As Peter Kreeft writes:[2]

Jesus is always doing this: first bringing his disciples down and out of their pride when they feel up, then bringing them up and out of their despair when they feel down. He does that to us too.

Peter gets dressed down, but nevertheless, Jesus calls him to “Follow me.”

References

• St. John’s Gospel: A Bible Study Guide and Commentary for Individuals and Groups: Ray, Stephen K.
• Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Year C
• The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year C – John Bergsma
• Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

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1. St. John’s Gospel: A Bible Study Guide and Commentary for Individuals and Groups. Steve Ray, 2002  ↩
2. Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Year C  ↩
3. bergsma  ↩
4. bergsma  ↩
5. bergsma  ↩