Deacon Mike Meyer / Sunday, May 4, 2025 / Categories: Blog, Homilies Do You Love Me? Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter, Year C Last week, I read an interesting Wall Street Journal Op-Ed piece by Peggy Noonan entitled “What We Need in Pope Francis’ Successor.” Noonan, a devout Catholic, often writes about the Church with insights uncommon in journalism today. That’s why I was surprised to read her decrying the Church’s efforts in the 20th and 21st centuries to “meet people where they are,” saying, “My goodness, enough. It is played out.”[1] I suspect that Ms. Noonan may not fully understand that meeting people where they are is an essential response to Jesus’ question, “Do you love me?” Perhaps she should consider today’s Gospel. In the latter part of our Gospel, we witness the rehabilitation of Peter, when Jesus graciously “gave Peter the chance to wipe out the memory of his threefold denial with a threefold declaration of love.[2] Though lost in translation, Jesus’ words to Peter in the original Greek text reveal that Jesus is meeting Peter where he is. You see, ancient Greek had at least 7 words for what we call love, and in our Gospel, we hear 2 of them. In his first and second questions, Jesus asks Peter if he loves him, using the verb agapaō, which is selfless, unconditional, sacrificial love. Yet, Peter responds with the verb phileō, which means brotherly love. Seeing that Peter can’t bring himself to use the verb agapaō, Jesus meets him where he is in the third question by using the verb phileō. Now, many scholars believe that the author of the Fourth Gospel is simply invoking a common Greek practice of using synonyms for stylistic variety, like alternating between the words talk and speak. Well, they’re just wrong. The meanings here are too radically different to be substituted for each other without being awkward. It would be like substituting “I adore you, Lord” with “I love ya, Bro.” If the story ended there, with Jesus allowing Peter to love him only like a brother, Peggy Noonan would be right. Meeting people where they are and leaving them there is pointless and certainly not Christ-like. Look at what happened in our Gospel. With each declaration of love, Jesus gave Peter a job. “Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep.” Then, once Peter’s rehabilitation is complete, Jesus prophesies Peter’s martyrdom and commands Peter to follow him. So, in return for professing his brotherly love, Jesus gave Peter a task and a cross, commanding Peter to love as Jesus loved, even unto death. Yes, Jesus met Peter where he was, but he didn’t leave him there. Just as parents thrilled with their child’s first step would never be satisfied until their toddler could walk and run, Jesus calls Peter and all of us to something greater. He calls us to love with God-like love, a selfless, unconditional, sacrificial love. Jesus isn’t looking for people who simply check a box to be counted among his fans, friends, and followers. He’s looking for disciples—people who’ll preach as he preached, forgive as he forgave, show mercy as he showed mercy, and love as he loved, and yes, that means agapaō. So, when Jesus asks, “Do you love me?” he wants to know if we’re willing to care for his people with the same love and courage as he did.[3] He wants to know if we’ll meet people where they are and help them advance along their Christian journey. Peter did. We witness his self-sacrificing love for Jesus in our first reading, where he’s imprisoned and flogged for preaching the Gospel. Peter was martyred in Rome some 35 years later, as Jesus foretold. John lived and loved as Jesus did, too. In our second reading, he’s sharing the revelations he received while exiled on the desolate island of Patmos for preaching the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Think also of the countless servants of God who loved Jesus and their neighbors with their lives, including Archbishop Oscar Romero, Sr. Dorothy Stang, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the 21 Coptic Martyrs killed by ISIS. It isn’t easy to love Jesus and others with agapeic love, but these witnesses and many more prove that we can. So, we need to ask ourselves, how will we answer when Jesus asks, “Do you love me?” How far are we willing to go? Well, the good news is that Jesus will meet us where we are and help us advance in our faith, if we let him. We may not be ready to commit right now to preaching to the ends of the earth like Saint Paul, but we may be ready to feed his lambs and tend his sheep. We may not yet be willing to risk our freedom or our lives for the Gospel like Saint Peter, but we may be willing to shepherd those who’ve gone astray, gently and lovingly meeting them where they are and leading them home to God. There’s something that every one of us can do to love as Jesus loved, something that will move us and others forward in our mutual journey toward eternal life. And that was the main point of Peggy Noonan’s Wall Street Journal Op-Ed. Noonan wants to see the Church “go back to the beginning, shift from modernity to eternity, [and] ask the world to train its eye on Christ.” I couldn’t agree more. The Church and all of us need to love Jesus as he loves us, not just like a brother. We need to love our family, friends, neighbors, and total strangers with selfless, unconditional, sacrificial love. I know it’s hard, but I have faith that Jesus will meet us where we are and help us meet others where they are, so together, we can meet Jesus in paradise. Readings: Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41; Psalm 30; Revelation 5: 11-12, 13; John 21:1-19 [1] Peggy Noonan, “What We Need in Pope Francis’ Successor,” The Wall Street Journal 285, no. 97 (April 26-27, 2025), A13. [2] William Barclay, The Gospel of John, vol. 2 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001), 333. [3] Mary M. McGlone, “What Does It Mean to Love?” National Catholic Reporter 61, no. 15 (April 25-May 8, 2025), 19. The Power of the Resurrection Print 173 Please login or register to post comments.