May 4, 2025

3^rd Sunday of Easter (C) 

A Rehabilitation at the Shore 

Msgr Thomas Gervasio 

 
The Gospel takes us to the Sea of Galilee, where it all started for Peter. Our Lord invited him to leave everything behind to follow him. The next three years would be extraordinary. He lived with Jesus. He listened to his words, he saw his astonishing miracles, he saw Jesus go to this death and witnessed his appearances after the Resurrection, and yet he returns home to his former livelihood and takes up the fishing nets he had left behind to follow Jesus. 
 
It was a step backwards. Even after the Resurrection, Peter was still burdened with the pain and guilt of having denied the Lord. But Jesus returns to the place he had first called Peter and he calls out again. At first, Jesus is not recognized. But the miraculous haul of fish makes it obvious that the man on the shore was Jesus.  
 
Realizing this, Peter, impulsive by nature, jumped into the water, racing to shore where they find a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread. Jesus invites the group to breakfast. It must have reminded them of the times Jesus fed thousands with fish and bread.  
 
After breakfast, Our Lord singles out Peter. During Holy Week we heard that it was around the fire in the courtyard of the high priest that Peter denied the Lord, not once but three times. Now, at the fire where he was first called, Jesus asks Peter, not once but—to Peter’s annoyance—three times “Do you love me?" Remember that Peter had made the rash pledge that he loved Jesus more than the other apostles. Jesus uses Peter’s own words to remind him of that self-righteous pledge.  
 
Why did Jesus ask three times? This is a reversal, a symbolic undoing of Peter’s triple denial. Scripture scholar, Fr. Raymond Brown calls it, Peter’s “rehabilitation.” His three denials are now atoned for by a triple confession of love. Despite his failure, the Lord reconfirms Peter as the rock upon which the Church is built. Despite his weaknesses he is given the mandate to tend the flock of the Church. 
 
We might ask, “Why didn’t Our Lord look elsewhere after Peter denied him? Cardinal Angelo Comastri says that “it is perhaps to tell us that the strength of Peter and of his successors and of the entire Church does not lie in man’s ability but in the mercy of God who always uses weak and fragile instruments to carry forward the great work of salvation.”
 
What about us? When we look at ourselves, we have to admit that we are never all we want or hope to be. We are good in words, our resolutions, but we know all too well how we can fail. St. Peter would surely tell us that just as Jesus gave him a new beginning, he offers us a new beginning.  
 
St. Augustine, commenting on this Gospel wrote, “Questioning Peter, Jesus questions each of us. His question to us is not “What have you done?” or “Who were you in the past?” The Lord’s question has nothing to do with the past and everything to do with the present. His question is always, “Do you love me?” 
 
Our past need not haunt us or keep us captive. Sins can be forgiven, mistakes left in the past, stupidities can be buried and hurts unrecorded. This is what the Lord does for us when we can truly say with Peter, “Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you.”