This reflection is based upon John chapter 21 verses 15 to 19. In this Gospel reading, Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him. Each time Peter replies that he does. Jesus might be asking this question three times to counteract Peter’s denying him three times. Or it could be that Jesus is just emphasizing the point that Peter must love him. Then, Jesus tells Peter a parable about old age. He tells Peter that when he grows old someone else will dress him and will lead him where he doesn’t want to go. This could be a reference to Peter’s eventual death on a cross. Finally, Jesus tells Peter to follow him. This sequence emphasizes Peter’s role in the Church. As the head of the Church, as its rock, it is critical that Peter love Jesus and that he follow him. We see in Acts of the Apostles, that Peter does follow the footsteps of Jesus; that he works miracles and proclaims the message of Jesus. Eventually, he dies on the cross as Jesus did. It is said that Peter requested that he be crucified upside down because he wasn’t worthy to die the same type of death that Jesus did.
Today, Jesus is telling us the same things that he told Peter. He is constantly asking us if we love him and then telling us to feed his sheep. Of course, our role isn’t nearly as important as Peter’s role was. But, each of us is important in spreading the faith to those that we meet. Imagine what our lives would be like if we didn’t have the gift of faith. And for most of us, this wasn’t a conscious choice that we made but a free gift from our parents. And we won’t have to suffer the death of a martyr in order to spread the faith to those we meet. We just have to be a good example to others and to be able and willing to proclaim the faith when the opportunity presents itself.
The question, do you love Jesus, is an appropriate response from our conscience, after we sin. And it is good for us to hear that question deep within ourselves. When we hear this, it tells us that we aren’t so accustomed to sin that it doesn’t bother us. Like Peter, we must quickly tell the Lord that we love him and, then, once again, follow him.
Paragraph 1783 of the Catechism tells us: “Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened. A well-formed conscience is upright and truthful. If formulates its judgments according to reason, in conformity with the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator. The education of conscience is indispensable for human beings who are subjected to negative influences and tempted by sin to prefer their own judgment and to reject authoritative teaching.”
Pope Benedict recently said that Europe is doomed if conscience isn’t rediscovered when he said:
“If, in keeping with the prevailing modern idea, conscience is reduced to the subjective field to which religion and morality have been banished, then the crisis of the West has no remedy and Europe is destined to collapse in on itself. If, on the other hand, conscience is rediscovered as the place in which to listen to truth and good, the place of responsibility before God and before fellow human beings – in other words, the bulwark against all forms of tyranny – then there is hope for the future.”
Is there hope for the future here in Lebanon, Ohio? Or have we also reduced conscience to a subjective thing? The stakes are high. The survival of society here is also dependent upon us, individually and as a society, listening to that voice within us which tells us to do good and to avoid evil. Are we listening and are we following him or are we doing our own thing?
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