“SIMON, SON OF JOHN”
In today’s Gospel, John, 21: 9- 22, for the Third Sunday of Easter, we might be tempted to ask: “How is it that Jesus asked the self-same question to Peter, over and over again ? To begin with, I can’t accept the simple, straight forward reason given by many that Jesus asked Peter three times to help him make amends for his three time betrayal. That’s too straight forward.

There must be a very good reason for Christ’s question asked three times over. Let us study, first, the way Jesus addressed Peter. He addressed him each and every time as, Simon, son of John. Now, let’s see what exactly Jesus asked Peter in Question1: “…do you love me more than all these ?” In the second question He asked: “ … do you love me?” In the third Jesus asked: “You love me?”

WE must surely notice a great difference in these three questions asked. In the first question, Jesus is making it clear and obvious that He is addressing Simon, as one of the others, one of the many. He is addressing the fisherman, that rough, hyper fellow from Galilee who is always ready to open his mouth, always quick on the draw, very often speaking without even thinking, though deep down he is a good fellow. Mind you this is a typical Galilean character.

But still, Jesus is choosing him out with the words ‘more than all these.’ So, we might rightly think that Jesus has got something up His sleeve.

In the second question: ‘Do YOU, love me’. Well we can’t know from the Gospel, the tone or stress made by Jesus in this second question, but, now Peter has been picked, chosen, earmarked from the rest, sort of, ‘I am interested in knowing what YOU, personally think.’ WE might rightly ask, ‘why all this interest in this particular fellow?’

So the limelight is on Peter. I would venture to think that Jesus, in this second instance, when addressing him, had on the tip of His tongue another word, but He stopped short of uttering it. I mean this: ‘Simon, son of John, (Peter), do you love me?’ I say this because it is so obvious, so evident that Peter was slowly, but surely, being chosen from the rest.

In the third question, which unfortunately, in the English Translation does not come out so forceful as in the Maltese Translation, the question is: ‘(Do) YOU, love me?’. One seems to expect, again, Jesus to add the new name of Simon, that of ‘Petrus’ or ‘Cephas’, the stone, the rock, the foundation of the Church of Christ.

Here we see a psychological build up by Jesus in these three, seemingly repeated questions, yet, which indicate an undercurrent of thought in the great teacher, Jesus Christ.

We have to mention the words of commission given to Simon, son of John, Peter. The first commission was to ‘Feed My lambs’. But throughout the whole Gospel, Jesus is always in search of the sheep, and not the lambs. The lamb seems to be reserved for Jesus Himself, as the Pure, Sacrificial Lamb of God. So, Peter, was commissioned to take charge, to watch, to tend, to lead the sheep to Christ.

Putting all these thoughts together, which, I think, have a natural sequence and link, we might say that these three questions asked by Jesus to Simon son of John, are certainly not repetitive. I always believed that, in the Holy Scripture, every single word has its value and importance. For this reason we should not try to study whole chapeters at a atime. Even in the Lectio Divina. Sometimes a ‘phrase’ a ‘short sentence’ or even a single ‘word’ would suffice to make us realise the depth and wealth of the Word of God.