“Gratitude for the witness of St. Peter” by Fr. Thomas for Texas Catholic.
After celebrating Mass recently for my University of Dallas students in a chapel just a few feet from the bones of St. Peter, I mused on what the fisherman would think of the overwhelming grandeur of the basilica that houses his mortal remains. Many would suspect that his simple Galilean sensibilities would be repulsed by the opulence and gilded pomp of the place, and that thought did cross my mind; but that solution strikes me as too facile and puritanical. My hunch is that Peter would consider the final resting place of his bones, the rock on which this church and the Church are built, to be a fitting reward, a capstone for his efforts to love the Lord.
The biblical sequence that came immediately to my mind was the dialogue between Jesus and Peter recounted in the last chapter of John’s Gospel. The resurrected Lord instructs the fishermen from the shore to cast their nets on the right side of the boat. Once they haul in the miraculous catch of 153 large fish, Simon Peter, upon hearing from the beloved disciple that Jesus was the speaker, impetuously swims to the shore. After breakfast, a conversation unfolds that undoes the threefold denial of Jesus that Peter committed on the night of Jesus’ arrest.
English translations obscure the theological fascination that Jesus, through John’s Greek text, conveys to Peter and to us. Our flat word “love” is the sole verb employed throughout the sequence: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” But a greater mystery is at work. Jesus initially asks, “Simon, son of John, do you have agape for me greater than these others?” Peter knows that he does not possess the selfless, sacrificial love implied in the word agape; he answers by asserting what he does possess: “Yes, Lord, you know that I have philia for you” – the love of one friend for another, but not the superabundant love that God is, according to 1 John 4:8. Jesus seems content with this answer, and commissions him with the order, “Feed my lambs” (Jn 21:15).
But Jesus launches a second question with a focus exclusively on Peter: “Simon, son of John, do you have agape for me?” We have no insight from John about how Peter receives this repeated question about agape; he responds again, “Yes, Lord, you know I have philia for you.” Jesus appears to be satisfied with this repeated answer, and offers another command: “Tend my sheep” (Jn 21:16).
The verb changes in Jesus’ third question: “Simon, son of John, do you have philia for me?” The change prompts John to note that Peter is hurt by this final question. It is, after all, a challenge; Jesus is wondering if Peter even has the philia love that he claims to have for Jesus. Never one to back down, Peter boldly pledges that Jesus cannot deny that he does love Him, however imperfectly: “Lord, you know all things; you know that I do have philia for you.” Jesus then gives a third command: “Feed my sheep” (Jn 21:17).
If the dialogue finished here, the sequence would suffice to reverse each of Peter’s three denials of Jesus, and Peter would have his apostolic commission renewed and restored. But Jesus concludes by outlining for Peter the way in which his love will move from philia to agape by the end of his life:
“‘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’” (Jn 21:18-19).
Jesus thus identifies the way of agape with the way of martyrdom for Peter. The question of his love will be answered only when he learns not to save his own skin under pressure, but to imitate Jesus by laying down his life for the Church. Along with Paul, to whom the Lord said, “You must also bear witness in Rome” (Acts 23:11), Peter establishes the cornerstone of the Church in Roman soil. I trust that he also rejoices to see so many millions of pilgrims streaming to Rome from all parts of the earth, confessing one and the same Catholic faith at his magnificent monument.