PETER, DO YOU LOVE ME?

        Christ demands from Peter the most reliable sign of Love.  "Yes Lord, I love you."  But Christ was not satisfied with words.  Words are a meaningless expression of one's true state of soul.  "Not everyone who says 'Lord, I love you' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but only the ones who do the will of My Father in heaven."

        And what was the will of Christ for Peter?  "Feed my lambs."  Lambs are those who are spiritual babies, those who are merely beginning in the spiritual life.  "To feed" these lambs is to teach them the simpler commands of Christ like the first Beatitude, i.e. to teach them how to be poor in spirit.  But that is not enough.  "To feed" also means that after teaching them the commands of Christ, we must supervise them in obeying the commands by guidance, by rebukes, reminders, encouragements and corrections until they reach perfection in obedience. 

        To teach the lambs the commands without properly guiding them to its perfect obedience is NOT to feed the lambs.  And to completely neglect to teach the lambs the commands of Christ is criminal negligence for which the shepherd shall be liable before God.

        For the third time, Christ asked Peter:  "Peter, do you love Me?"  Peter knew himself, that he loved Christ.  But he did not depend on his own knowledge of self but on the Divine Knowledge of God:  "Lord, you know all things. . ."  Christ said:  "Feed my sheep."  The sheep are the more spiritually mature.  And to feed the sheep is to teach them the deeper teachings of Christ, guiding, reminding, rebuking and encouraging them until the perfection of their obedience. 

        To feed the lambs and the sheep is to teach souls, both beginners and advanced, the simple and more difficult commands of Christ and HOW to observe them, guiding each soul to the perfect obedience of these commands.  Why, isn't that the Apostolic Commission given by Christ to His apostles? 

        To accomplish this is the sign of Love of God.  And whoever can attain to this is deserving to be an apostle. 

        But, sadly, today, do one seems to know the commands of Christ. . .much more know how to observe the commands of Christ.  And when confronted with these commands taken from the writing of the Fathers, all find them alien to their present beliefs.  hearing the commands of Christ today, make Christians angry.  We are totally ignorant of these commands that upon hearing them, we hate them.  The commands of Christ go against our concept of modern Catholicism.  Unfortunately our modern concept is a heresy called modernism. 

(08-03-10)