Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter And
Marcellinus And Peter, Martyrs
Readings for Friday of the 7th Week of Easter
Biographical Information about Marcellinus And Peter, Martyrs

First Published: Friday, June 02, 2006

Feeding the Sheep

Reflection:

The lectionary, in the case of our Gospel reading today takes a little liberty and grabs a piece of Jn 21 14 and tacks it on to the beginning of the next verse (v. 15). If you have been following the daily scripture as it has been echoing the great discourse in the upper room, you need to know that we now fast forward three days ahead and are hearing Christ, crucified, died, buried and now risen.

That may be why Peter is not quite getting what Jesus is saying. It must be very confusing for him to have the Lord, whom he thought dead until recently, sitting with him, having breakfast and then questioning him and giving him instructions he did not seem to understand. Given the fact that he had denied even knowing Christ immediately after his arrest, we can only imagine the guilt he must be feeling.

To us his message is clear. Jesus is telling Peter to take what he was given, including the Bread of Life, and feed the hungry world. Feed my Sheep! Can Peter have forgotten Jesus, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee when he said:

I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst
(Jn 6 35)

And then later, shortly after curing the blind he told them:

I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.(Jn 10 11)

Perhaps his distracted state did not bring back these words to him. Perhaps he did not quite understand what was being asked of him. But in the end Jesus made it crystal clear: Follow Me!

This is our message for today, simply Follow me. The simplest command, the most difficult road but we are called and must follow. Feed my Sheep! Pax