The Shepherd, June 2008
EXPLANATION OF THE GOSPEL
CONCERNING THE RESTORATION OF PETER
By the Blessed & Ever-Memorable
Metropolitan Philaret of New York
IN THE ORDER that the Gospels are read for the Day of Resurrection (Sunday Mattins Gospels), you and I have today heard the pro-clamation of the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, telling how the Lord spoke with His disciples after the miraculous draught of fishes at the Sea of Galilee. Here is the Lord again, surrounded by His beloved children, those whom, at the Mystical Supper, He had with such love called “My little children.” But in His apostolic family, among His children, there is now an incompleteness. Two of His Apostles had committed dreadful sins: one had betrayed Him to His enemies; the other had with an oath three times denied Him.
Now the Lord fulfils His work of love and forgiveness. The Apostle, who had betrayed Him, has perished. He perished, because, having come to understand the awful and immeasurable weight of his sin, he fell into despair and did away with himself. But the other Apostle, who had committed a similarly dreadful sin, in denying his Teacher three times with an oath, nevertheless did not fall into despair. Peter suffered grievously, nonetheless in his apostolic heart there remained hope on the merciful judgment of the Teacher, and because of this, as we can see, he did not falter. By his denial he had excluded himself from the company of Christ’s Apostles. This much is apparent because when the Angel spoke to the Myrrh-bearing Women, telling them that they must needs proclaim the Resurrection of the Teacher to the Apostles, he said unto them: “Tell His disciples and Peter,” i.e. tell him who has already lost the calling and entitlement of a disciple of Christ on account of his dreadful denial.
And now behold: this catch of fish, the meal and the conversation on the shore! The Most Blessed Metropolitan Antony (Khrapovitsky) used to love to point out that it is precisely in that conversation that we see manifested the very basis of the pastoral ministry - the service of God and of our neighbours. One might think that it is faith, if that faith is solid. But no! it is not this which the Lord speaks of. Then maybe a strong hope? He does not speak of this. “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me, more than these?” Lovest thou Me? And behold, now without any kind of oath such as he had before falsely used, the Apostle humbly says, “Yea, Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee.” And immediately, when he had confessed his love, the Lord restores him to his calling as an Apostle, saying, “Feed My lambs!” Peter had denied three times, and three times his denial had to be redressed. The first time, the Lord asks him, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me, more than these?” Softly, delicately, but, though it was painful for Peter, to the point He brings to his mind how once at the Mystical Supper he had said: “Though all shall be offended, yet shall I never be.” And here the Lord therefore asks him: “What then, Simon? After all that has come to pass, do you again say the very same thing that you said at the Mystical Supper?” No, - but now the Apostle humbly replies, “Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee.” But I repeat, there had to be a threefold restoration. So again the Lord asks him the same thing, and the Apostle Peter answers as before. But when the question was put the third time, the Apostle’s whole soul was in turmoil, because the threefold repetition of the question afflicted his soul with the remembrance of that shameful threefold denial. So then with his whole heart he cries out, “Lord, thou knowest all things! Thou knowest that I love Thee!” Then the Lord, moved by His own merciful forgiveness, speaks to him for the third time: “Feed My sheep!” And then He foretells to him his apostolic labours and his death as a martyr for Christ.
And here is what it is necessary to bear in mind, that the foundation of the pastoral ministry is nothing other than love! Love, first and foremost for the Saviour, because the Lord asks: “Lovest thou Me?” - Lovest thou Me? And then what is most intimately linked to this, of course: love for our neighbour, for he is manifestly the work of the Saviour. All this the Gospel tells us, and indeed the very last, concluding Gospel of the Resurrection - (Mattins Gospel 11 - John 21:15-25, also used on many feasts of the Apostles, precisely because it speaks of the ministry of love - ed.), - and it shows us how a pastor of the Church must serve his Lord. He must have within his soul the wherewithal to say to Him with full justification: “Yea, Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee.” Amen.
 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 
|
