Fr. Roger J. Landry
Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, New York, NY
Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter
Memorial of St. Christopher Magallanes and Companions
May 21, 2021
Acts 25:13-21, Ps 103, Jn 21:15-19
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The following points were attempted in the homily:
- In today’s Gospel, we have one of the most powerful and poignant scenes in the Gospel, which the Church gives us to help us to summarize the graces of the Easter Season and to send us forward into Pentecost and beyond. It’s a continuation, in a sense, of the Easter Octave, since it’s the second half of the Gospel we had on Easter Friday, April 9. Jesus meets Peter and six other disciples on the seashore of Galilee where he cooks them breakfast. At the end of the meal, he takes Simon Peter aside in order to restore his confidence after having totally denied Jesus three times on Holy Thursday just a couple of hours after saying that even if he should have to die for Jesus, he would never betray him. Peter was not yet able to experience the joy of Jesus’ resurrection fully because of the trauma of his sins. But Jesus needed him. Jesus wanted to solidify the rock on whom he was building his Church. So in response to Peter’s three-fold denial, Jesus gave him a chance to make a three-fold affirmation of love.
- Buried within their dialogue is a real drama, but to see it, we have to know a little Greek. The first time Jesus asks Peter if he loves him, the word he uses for love is agape, which means a total self-sacrificial type of love, the type of love Jesus himself showed when he said, “No one has any greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.” “Simon, son of John,” he was asking, “do you love me with agape?” Peter’s response, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you,” doesn’t use the word “agape,” but rather “philia.” He replies, in other words, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you as a friend.” Peter, after having broken his promise to die for Jesus before he ever would deny him, wasn’t going to make the same promise again. He was still carrying around the weight of his betrayal. Jesus had called him a friend during the Last Supper because he had revealed to him and the other apostles all that the Father had told him, but he had been stripped of the confidence that had made him commit to love Jesus by Jesus’ life-giving standard, that the greatest love is to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. So Jesus asked him a second time, “Peter, do you love me with agape, with total self-sacrificial love?” Peter replied again, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you with philia, as a friend.” So Jesus in the third question lowered himself to where Peter was comfortable and asked, “Simon, Son of John, do you love me with philia?” That’s when Peter was distressed. He knew the Lord was calling him to more but the Lord was acknowledging that Peter didn’t think he was capable of heroic love. He replied, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you as a friend.” Jesus, however, wasn’t going to leave Peter there. He said to him that when he was younger, he used to dress himself and go about as he pleased. But when Peter would grow old, another would “stretch out his hands” — a Greek euphemism for crucifixion — and lead him to a place he didn’t want to go, something, St. John said, was indicating the type of death by which Peter would glorify God. Jesus was telling him, “Even if you don’t want to say again publicly that you love me enough to die for me, you will love me that way, even being crucified for me.” And Jesus to emphasize the point said to him, “Follow me,” because Peter would follow him all the way.
- What’s the lesson for us? Each of us, too, has had times when we haven’t been faithful to God, but no matter what our falls, Jesus wants to restore us to be capable of a love like his, of a total self-giving love in response to Jesus’ love for us. And he indicates to Peter and to us how to show it, by feeding his lambs and sheep, by tending his flock. In other words, the way we will demonstrate our love for him will be by sacrificing ourselves, by giving of ourselves, out of love for those he loved so much to die for. Jesus didn’t say, “Love me as I have loved you,” but “Love one another as I have loved you,” because our love for him would be shown in our love for his flock.
- St. Paul, who was on trial in today’s first reading because of his love for Jesus and for Jesus’ sheep and lambs, wrote to the Corinthians of the importance of this type of agape. He said that if we have faith to move mountains, if we even give our bodies over to the torturers in defense of the faith but don’t have love, we are just a noisy gong and a clashing cymbal. To love by Jesus’ standard isn’t easy and Jesus knows it. St. Peter himself learned it the hard way. St. Paul gave his words to the Corinthians out of experience because he himself needed to learn each of the virtues he would predicate of love: “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” Christ’s love transformed both of them.
- Jesus gives us two gifts to love by his standard.
- The first is the gift of himself in the Holy Eucharist. Jesus himself enters us with his own love so that from the inside we are able to love others with the total gift of ourselves in communion with him. He who says to us with love, “This is my Body given for you, this is the Chalice of my Blood poured out for you,” strengthens us from within to echo in our own lives his words, so that we may give our body, our soul, our sweat, our lives loving others with the same love we here receive.
- The second gift is the one we’re preparing to receive anew on Sunday, the feast of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit came down upon Peter, the Apostles, Mary and the members of the early Church as tongues of fire, so that with ardent love they might give witness to the faith. One of his great gifts is the gift of courage; one of the great fruits of life according to the Holy Spirit is agape. The Holy Spirit changed Peter from an apostate to an apostle, from a chicken to a shepherd. He upgraded his love from philia to agape and strengthened him by the gift of courage to remain faithful. And the Holy Spirit seeks to work the same moral miracle in us.
- We see the impact of life according to the Holy Spirit in the martyrs we celebrate day: St. Christopher Magallanes and his 24 companions, canonized 21 years ago today in a beautiful canonization in St. Peter’s Square where I was present and distributed Holy Communion. Today was chosen for the canonization and feast day because it was on this day in 1927 that St. Christopher Magallanes was arrested as he was going to celebrate Mass on a farm. St. Christopher had sought to live his priesthood in accordance with the Holy Spirit. With the Spirit’s help he sought to pray and teach others to pray, first as a chaplain in a school, then as a pastor; to sing, personally and through the formation of choirs; to care for the sick and form others to do so, even at the risk of their life during the persecution of Christians in Mexico; to hear confessions and help people seek God’s mercy, as he courageously did even when it might lead to his arrest; to receive children from God and bring them to grow in his knowledge, as he did not only through his priestly work but through his forming a seminary in his own rectory to train future priests to bring others to Christ, after the Mexican government closed the seminaries. But he’s also great model of courage, continuing to serve as a priest even when others were challenged by it. When he was arrested 94 years ago today, he gave his last possessions away, pardoned those who were his executioners, and went to his death offering his life freely for the unity of his spiritual brothers and sisters throughout Mexico. He loved the Lord more than his life. He showed that love by feeding and tending the Lord’s sheep and lambs. The Holy Spirit gave him this love and this strength. The Holy Spirit is the one who always strengthens us to live our faith and not be afraid to give supreme testimony of faith in death, because he helps us to remember that death is just a passage to life, not an end. In response to this work of the Holy Spirit, which we need to live our faith well today, we cry out, “Come, Holy Spirit!”
- So today Jesus calls each of us by name like he called Simon Peter, Christopher Magallanes and his companions and asks, “Do you love me?” May each of us today be strengthened by the Holy Spirit not just here but throughout the day to reply, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you with a total self-sacrificial gift of love” by the way we love the lambs and sheep he entrusts to our shepherdly care.
The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1 ACTS 25:13B-21
King Agrippa and Bernice arrived in Caesarea
on a visit to Festus.
Since they spent several days there,
Festus referred Paul’s case to the king, saying,
“There is a man here left in custody by Felix.
When I was in Jerusalem the chief priests and the elders of the Jews
brought charges against him and demanded his condemnation.
I answered them that it was not Roman practice
to hand over an accused person before he has faced his accusers
and had the opportunity to defend himself against their charge.
So when they came together here, I made no delay;
the next day I took my seat on the tribunal
and ordered the man to be brought in.
His accusers stood around him,
but did not charge him with any of the crimes I suspected.
Instead they had some issues with him about their own religion
and about a certain Jesus who had died
but who Paul claimed was alive.
Since I was at a loss how to investigate this controversy,
I asked if he were willing to go to Jerusalem
and there stand trial on these charges.
And when Paul appealed that he be held in custody
for the Emperor’s decision,
I ordered him held until I could send him to Caesar.”
on a visit to Festus.
Since they spent several days there,
Festus referred Paul’s case to the king, saying,
“There is a man here left in custody by Felix.
When I was in Jerusalem the chief priests and the elders of the Jews
brought charges against him and demanded his condemnation.
I answered them that it was not Roman practice
to hand over an accused person before he has faced his accusers
and had the opportunity to defend himself against their charge.
So when they came together here, I made no delay;
the next day I took my seat on the tribunal
and ordered the man to be brought in.
His accusers stood around him,
but did not charge him with any of the crimes I suspected.
Instead they had some issues with him about their own religion
and about a certain Jesus who had died
but who Paul claimed was alive.
Since I was at a loss how to investigate this controversy,
I asked if he were willing to go to Jerusalem
and there stand trial on these charges.
And when Paul appealed that he be held in custody
for the Emperor’s decision,
I ordered him held until I could send him to Caesar.”
Responsorial Psalm PS 103:1-2, 11-12, 19-20AB
R. (19a) The Lord has established his throne in heaven.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
R. The Lord has established his throne in heaven.
or:
R. Alleluia.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he put our transgressions from us.
R. The Lord has established his throne in heaven.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all.
Bless the LORD, all you his angels,
you mighty in strength, who do his bidding.
R. The Lord has established his throne in heaven.
or:
R. Alleluia.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
R. The Lord has established his throne in heaven.
or:
R. Alleluia.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he put our transgressions from us.
R. The Lord has established his throne in heaven.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all.
Bless the LORD, all you his angels,
you mighty in strength, who do his bidding.
R. The Lord has established his throne in heaven.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia JN 14:26
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Holy Spirit will teach you everything
and remind you of all I told you.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel JN 21:15-19
After Jesus had revealed himself to his disciples and eaten breakfast with them,
he said to Simon Peter,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
He then said to Simon Peter a second time,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
He said to him, “Tend my sheep.”
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.
Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger,
you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted;
but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands,
and someone else will dress you
and lead you where you do not want to go.”
He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.
And when he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.”
he said to Simon Peter,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
He then said to Simon Peter a second time,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
He said to him, “Tend my sheep.”
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.
Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger,
you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted;
but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands,
and someone else will dress you
and lead you where you do not want to go.”
He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.
And when he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.”
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