As we are coming to the end of the Easter season, as we approach Pentecost Sunday, we hear the post-resurrection Jesus ask Peter three times if he loves him, to which Peter answers affirmatively. Jesus' response to Peter is to feed my lambs, tend my sheep, and feed my sheep. Peter's three affirmative responses of loving Jesus reminds us of the three times when Peter denied Jesus during Jesus' suffering on the way to the cross.
It is easy to have a relationship with Jesus when he takes us to the easy, comfortable places that bring us joy and that are the places we want to go. Yet, we know that our journey of faith consists of more than those easy comfortable places. We are followers of Jesus in the true sense only when we let him take us to places that we don't particularly want to go, perhaps to places where we confront our fears and are pushed beyond our comfort zone. We are called to surrender to Jesus' love and to the will of God, to ask for the grace to live as true disciples, to be willing to say “yes” to God in the many unexpected ways in which he asks us to serve him and to serve his people. When Peter was answering those questions of Jesus, I don’t think he realize where his journey of faith would lead him.
Speaking of God’s grace, I recently saw this quote from Catholic author Flannery O’Connor on the internet: “All human nature vigorously resists grace, because grace changes us and change is painful.” What an interesting quote. Change is a constant in human life, isn’t it? But change is indeed painful. May we open ourselves to the transformative power of God’s grace.
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