Feed My Sheep
“For the Souls in Purgatory – Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord”
John 21:17
He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, ‘Do you love me?’ and he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep.’
Grace Prayed For
Lord, restore in us what failure has diminished, and send us forward — not in our own strength, but with the simple charge: tend what I have entrusted to you.
Reflection
By the third question, Peter is distressed. The repetition has done its work — not to wound, but to excavate. Three questions to answer three denials. Three times Peter must find the word ‘love’ in his mouth and say it, plainly, to the face of the one he abandoned.
‘Lord, you know everything.’ This is a surrender of pretense. Peter stops managing the conversation and simply opens. He cannot out-love his own history. He cannot talk his way to restoration. All he can do is acknowledge that Jesus already knows what is true — the love and the failure both — and that he is willing to be known that completely.
And from that radical honesty comes a commission: Feed my sheep. Not a consolation prize. Not a reduced role appropriate to someone with his record. The same sheep. The same tender, feeding responsibility entrusted to the person who has most recently demonstrated he cannot do it on his own.
This is the logic of grace, and it continues to astonish. God does not reassign responsibility to more reliable people. God restores and recommissions. The precise place of our failure becomes, in the grammar of resurrection, the place of our deepest calling.
Peter will go on to lead the early church, preach at Pentecost, work miracles in the name of Jesus, and eventually die a martyr’s death. None of that was possible before the lakeside breakfast. The great things that came after required passing through the distress of that third question.
Where are you being asked to answer the question honestly? What commission is waiting on the other side of your surrender?
Feed my sheep. The charge is as old as charcoal smoke and as new as this morning.
When Time Allows Reflect on the Posts in Library and Musings
Sharing
Jesus last words on Earth were to his disciples, can be found in Matthew Chap 28 when Jesus told his disciples, “Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
Jesus calls all of us to share in his redemptive mission here on Earth. I would ask you to share this Scripture reflection with your family, your friends and your acquaintances, and then share it with a couple of individuals that you may may not be comfortable sharing with, keeping in mind always the words of Jesus, And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age
Author was assisted by AI in the drafting of this Post