Dail Mass Gospel Reflection - Acceptance and Denial

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 04.12.22 | Aux. Bishop R. Barron

[MurphsLaw]

TUESDAY OF HOLY WEEK

JOHN 13:21-33, 36-38

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus foretells the denial of Peter, which is fulfilled in the account of the Passion.
Peter later denies Jesus three times before the cock crows and, remembering Jesus’ prediction, breaks down and weeps.

After the Resurrection, Peter and the other disciples returned to Galilee to work as fishermen again,
and there spotted Jesus on the far shore.
As Jesus draws Peter back into his circle of intimacy, we witness a beautiful act of spiritual direction.
Three times the Lord asks Peter whether he loves him, and three times Peter affirms it:
“Lord, you know that I love you.”

St. Augustine was the first to comment that the threefold statement of love was meant to counteract the threefold denial.
Peter emerges as the archetype of the forgiven and commissioned Church, for after each of his reaffirmations,
Peter hears the command to tend the sheep.
Once we are brought back into friendship with Jesus,
we are called to love those whom he loves.

[MurphsLaw]

+++Reclining at table with his disciples, Jesus was
deeply troubled and testified,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
The disciples looked at one another,
at a loss as to whom he meant.
One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved,
was reclining at Jesus’ side.
So Simon Peter nodded to him to find out whom he meant.
He leaned back against Jesus’ chest and said to him,
“Master, who is it?” Jesus answered,
“It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it.”
So he dipped the morsel and took it and handed it to Judas,
son of Simon the Iscariot.
After Judas took the morsel, Satan entered him.
So Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do,
do quickly.”
Now none of those reclining at table realized why he said
this to him.
Some thought that since Judas kept the money bag,
Jesus had told him,
“Buy what we need for the feast,”
or to give something to the poor.
So Judas took the morsel and left at once. And it was night.

When he had left, Jesus said,
“Now is the Son of Man glorified,
and God is glorified in him.
If God is glorified in him,
God will also glorify him in himself,
and he will glorify him at once.
My children, I will be with you only a little while longer.
You will look for me, and as I told the Jews,
‘Where I go you cannot come,’ so now I say it to you.”

Simon Peter said to him, “Master, where are you going?”
Jesus answered him,
“Where I am going, you cannot follow me now,
though you will follow later.”
Peter said to him,
“Master, why can I not follow you now?
I will lay down my life for you.”
Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me?
Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow
before you deny me three times.”+++