In the gospel for this Sunday, we continue to reflect on and hear about the post
resurrection accounts or encounters of Jesus with his disciples. In most of these encounters, if not all including this one in the gospel, Jesus wasn’t easily recognized by his disciples — they had a hard time knowing and sensing that it was the Lord who was in their midst. This is something that really intrigues me. After being with Jesus for three years day and night, after accompanying Jesus to all his missionary works and healing ministry, one would expect that the disciples would recognize him easily because the resurrected Christ is the same Jesus that was with them before the resurrection. Same thing happened with Mary Magdalene when Christ first appeared to her. She wasn’t able to recognize the Lord in an instant. Recognition and non- recognition seem to be important themes in the gospel for today. To be recognized is a basic human longing or need. Imagine yourself entering into a room or at a party and nobody smiles or even recognizes your presence. It must be a horrible feeling. How does a son or daughter feel when he or she is begging to be recognized, to be loved, cared for and understood by their mother or father? Or, what would a wife feel when a husband just neglects her and brushes her off as if she doesn’t exist at home? How does an elderly parent feel when she is left alone in a nursing facility and doesn’t hear anything from her children for months? To be recognized and to be connected is a basic human need. Even Christ, who doesn’t need anything outside himself because he is God, wanted to be recognized by his disciples. God, in the midst of his self-sufficiency and might, needs our attention too. He wants to be recognized by us and wants us to enter into a profound relationship with Him. And, this recognition that God demands from us can’t just be sustained by purely resorting to external manifestations of faith or by confining ourselves purely to rituals and pieties. In as much as we can find and recognize God through the beautiful and solemn wrappings of the liturgy, God is here right now in our midst in a very, very special way through the Eucharist. But we must also see him in the faces of one another, in the person next to you, in the person whom we might not be comfortable relating with, in the person who might have different religious convictions from ours; he is also in the countless men and women who are struggling and who are fighting for justice, in those who are suffering from sickness and in those who are struggling to find meaning in life. Just as Jesus himself said, "whatever you do to the least of your brothers and sisters, you do it to me." If we can find the peace, tranquility and the nearness to God in the Church, we must also be able to find and make it happen in the way we relate to others, in the way we lead our lives, in the way we build up our own families, in the way we conduct ourselves at work and in the community. The liturgy, the Eucharist, doesn’t stop at the confines of the Church. We come here as one community of faith, knowing that we will bring with us the graces and blessings of the Eucharist to make a difference in our own lives and in the lives of others. That is why every Mass is not the same; it is not Mass as usual because every liturgy brings new life, new hope and new beginning to each and every one of us.
In the gospel, we heard Jesus asking Peter three times, "Simon Peter, do you love me?" And, Peter replied, "Yes Lord you know that I love you." Despite the betrayal, denial and unfaithfulness of Peter, Jesus didn’t ask "Peter, are you going to betray me again next time?" "Are you going to deny me again next time?" Jesus didn’t dwell on the weakness and the betrayal of Peter. The question of Jesus to Peter was for Peter to realize what he is capable of - that he is capable of loving and of feeding the flock, of leading others to Christ despite his frailty and weakness. Jesus gave Peter a second chance, a new opportunity to reform his life, to make it right again. Same question is being ask of God to each one of us, "John, Mike, Pam, Father Cary, do you love me more than this? Just like with Peter, when Christ asks us that question, he isn’t looking at our past, at our sinfulness, but at what we are capable of - our capacity to love, our capacity to forgive, our capacity to be life-giving to others. The hope is that we will be able to respond with Peter - "Yes Lord, you that I love you." - Fr. Cary