Do you love Jesus Christ?
by Father Francis P. DeSiano, CSP
June 26, 2014

This is a homily on the Scripture readings for Sunday, June 29, the feast of Ss. Peter and Paul.

 

Although the sports world is now fixated on the World Cup, it was only a few weeks ago that we Americans were cheering the San Antonio Spurs who beat the Miami Heat – long considered unbeatable – in a 4 to 1 series. Much of the applause was for the way the Spurs, who have long played together developing a sense of team, could defeat Miami, for whom Lebron James has become the poster boy. The star, the go-to-man, the one who might win even without a team. When Lebron developed leg cramps, my NY Knick friends were ecstatic. We like stars, but deep down they make us feel inadequate and just ordinary.

Of the two saints we celebrate today – Peter and Paul – both have their claim to stardom. But Paul seems the bigger star. Almost everyone knows the story of him falling off a horse on the way to Damascus (except the Bible never mentions a horse). From that time on he seems restless, fierce, unrelenting, moving from city to city, anxious to spread God’s Word. Paul is a little like Lebron James; he makes us feel inadequate and just ordinary. How could we ever have a conversion and life like his?

Peter, of course, was no slouch, but the Gospel today helps us look at conversion in very direct and accessible terms. Jesus comes to Peter and asks him a direct question: “Simon, Son of John, do you love me?’’ We cannot hear this question without putting our own name in the sentence. Frank, Eleanor, Lucy, Robert, José … you, each of you, do you love me?

And how would we answer that question? In a way, we’d feel sheepish about it because it never seems that we love God as we should. We always see the failures and inadequacies. Jesus, of course, knows every frailty and inadequacy of Peter, but he still asks him the question. Peter says, “You know that I do.” In spite of the slips and stutters, in spite of the doubts and near-defeats, Peter knows his love, and knows that Jesus knows his love. Remember, in our relationship with God, God’s love is first.

Peter is giving us an image of conversion, of being a disciple, that might be easier to swallow than the majestic image of Paul. Because we can look into our intentions, we can probe our hearts, and ask ourselves very simply: Do I love Jesus? Do I prefer Jesus, in some way, to everything and everyone? Do I love Jesus despite my failings? Do I love Jesus enough to come to him after I have flopped? Do I love Jesus Christ?

If we can say “yes” to this, then we know exactly what conversion is. If we mostly want to say “yes” to this, then we know exactly how close we are to conversion. And all of us should be measuring ourselves in terms of conversion, as lovers of Jesus, as people who want to follow him in the deepest part of our soul, because that’s what it means to be a Catholic Christian – and that’s what it means to come to the Eucharist and eat at his table on Sunday.

When Benedict was pope, we heard a lot about the famous shoes he wore, hand-made red leather. He wore those because popes long have worn red shoes – symbolizing that they walk on ground spattered by the blood of Peter, Paul and all the other martyrs of Rome. I think Pope Francis would say: you don’t need the shoes, but you need the feet – the kind of feet that walk in the steps of the apostles because we have found the same kind of love they had inside our hearts as well.

And if we find their love in our hearts, then, for sure, we are members of their team, called by Jesus and sent, like them, into the world.