DON’T  EAT  TOO  FAST. 

YOU MIGHT MISS THE LOVE

OPENING STORY

One evening - after a long day at work - a high school teacher sat down to relax before her television set. She flipped the channels till she caught a “sit com”. She didn’t want anything heavy - just something to help her to unwind. Surprise! The following scene really hit her.

A little second grader was talking to her aunt who was baby sitting. Her parents were out for the evening. The little girl said, “Nobody around here ever tells me that they love me.” And the aunt quickly replied, “Your mom told you that she loved you at supper tonight.” “She did not,” came an even quicker reply. “Oh yes, she did.” “Oh no, she didn’t.” Silence. “Well, when did she say she loved me?” And her aunt replied, “When your mom told you, `Don’t eat too fast.’”

The high school teacher was struck by the aunt’s comment to the little girl. So she turned off the television and began thinking how the little girl’s complaint about never hearing anybody say, “I love you” was her complaint about her father all through her life. And looking back now after his death she never remembered hearing him say that he loved her. She began to cry as scenes appeared on the television screen of her memory of all the things that her father had done for her through the years. “Wow,” she said to herself, “he never said that he loved me, but he certainly did a lot of things that show me that he loved me.”

The next morning she told her class about how much the television scene had moved her. However, one of the kids in her class blurted out, “I still rather hear my mother and my father say that they loved me once and a while.” “I agree,” said the teacher, “but what hit me last night was how much people love us without using the words, `I love you.’”

A week later one of the kids in her class was baby sitting her little sister. Surprise! The little sister said, “Nobody around here ever says that they love me.” And her older sister answered, “Oh yes they do. Mom said that she loved you tonight at supper.” “Oh no, she didn’t. When?” “When she said, `Don’t eat too fast.’”

HOMILETIC REFLECTIONS

A possible theme that runs through today’s three readings is the theme of love: our love for Christ and Christ’s love for us and how that love should move us to reach out to love each other. “Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep.” This theme of love is especially evident in today’s gospel, but let’s look at the other two readings and then look at the gospel.

In today’s first reading we have a trial scene. Peter is interrogated by the high priest. Instead of once more denying Christ, Peter had learned to proclaim Jesus. And Peter certainly learned how to proclaim his love for Christ. Luke tells us, in fact, that the name of Jesus could be heard all over Jerusalem. The new Way was making its way through Jerusalem and on its way throughout the Roman Empire. It is not in today’s first reading, but in this fifth chapter of Acts we have the famous comment of the Pharisee, Gamaliel.  He said at this same trial that if these people (Christians) are of human origins they will destroy themselves, but if they are of God, we might be fighting God himself. What Luke might be doing here is presenting a case in a courtroom scene on how he hopes Roman courts throughout the empire will treat people of the Way - people who proclaim Jesus as Savior. Luke might be hoping that courts will dismiss cases against Christians as the Sanhedrin did at the end of today’s first reading with the order not to speak again about the name of Jesus.

In today’s first reading Peter also gives a primitive and basic creed on who Jesus is. He testifies in court that Jesus is the one that they had put on trial and killed as a criminal outside the walls of Jerusalem, hanging him on a tree. He has now been exalted by the Father. The one you rejected is now Ruler and Savior. He can bring repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

In today’s second reading from the Book of Revelation we have another testimony about Jesus. John gives us a vision of how the whole story is going to end - what its going to be like in heaven - and what we should be striving for right now. He describes the heavenly liturgy. The Lamb who was slain is next to the One seated on the throne. Thousands and tens of thousands love them  and are giving them “praise and honor, glory and might, forever and ever!”

If we read and study the Old Testament we will grow in understanding of symbolic language. We will get a better grasp of what is being said in a text like today’s second reading. A lamb is a weak helpless animal. But sometimes the weak and the helpless rise up to destroy the powerful. David, a boy shepherd, slays Goliath, a giant superpower. David was a lamb who became a messiah, a savior of his people. Judas Machabee was a lamb who ended up being described as a lion when he led the people of Israel in a revolution against the Syrians around the year 164 B.C. So there was a hope ever present in the Israelites, that a lamb would appear, a Paschal Lamb, who would take away the sins, the oppression, the abuse, against the people. That lamb was to be the Messiah. In today’s second reading, John is proclaiming that Jesus is that lamb who takes away the sins of the world. Mary had a little lamb. but However, that Lamb became the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world by being slain and being lifted up by the Father for us.

We come now to today’s gospel. We all know some of the background of this gospel. It too is loaded down with symbolic hints and symbolic words. Peter denied Christ three times, so he is asked three times if he loves Christ. The 153 fish that they caught might be referring to the vast number and maybe even variety of people in the world - people of every size and shape and color. They are all out there swimming in the river of life, just waiting to be caught for Christ. Jesus is Daybreak - the Light of the World. He is always on the shoreline of our life - especially after dark nights of catching nothing. Without Jesus we catch nothing; with Jesus we can catch everything.   Jesus feeds people - an obvious symbol of the Eucharist. And lastly, when we are young, we often can control lots of things, but when we are old, so much is out of our hands. Others will carry us off and push us around against our will.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

Now any one of these topics can provide plenty of food for thought - sort of like having 153 fish for breakfast. But for a practical application for today’s liturgy, I am connecting today’s readings, especially the gospel, to my opening story in order to stress the theme of loving Christ and being loved by him, loving one another and seeing how much they love us.

It’s nice to hear “I love you” once an a while. Jesus directly asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?” And Peter appeals to the reality that action speaks louder than words. He’s telling Christ: “Have I been this long with you and you don’t know that I love you? Hey! I’ve given up everything to follow you and you’re asking me, `Do you love me?’”

The Sunday liturgy is a distant mirror of the heavenly banquet of love that we heard about in today’s second reading. The Sunday liturgy is also a moment in our week when we gather together with all kinds of people of every size and shape and color and use words to tell Christ that we love him in loud song and soft prayers. The Sunday liturgy provides a chance - especially after receiving communion -  to be quiet and reflect on the presence of Christ and hear him ask us as he asked Peter, “Do you love me?” And then he will tell us to go forth from church and feed the people that we meet, to feed the people in our lives.

And what are people starving for? Aren’t they the two basics that we heard about in today’s gospel: food and love? And sometimes we don’t see the thousand and one ways those around us feed us and love us and we feed and love them. And sometimes we do everything for one another except to say the magic words, “I love you.” Going to church, hearing the readings, hearing a good homily, spending moments in prayer and examining our heart, aren’t they some of the ingredients necessary for us to really see ourselves and the people in our life in newer and better ways?

Take a moment. Be on trial like Peter. Look at your life. Do you love Christ? Do you publicly stand up for Christ? Do you love one another? Do you publicly stand up for one another? Are we like Peter before or after his conversion? Are we running away from each other like Peter ran away and denied Christ on the night Jesus was arrested or are we like Peter in today’s first and third reading, standing up for Christ and telling him that we love him?

The Sunday liturgy then is a great reminder to look at our own life and the people swimming in the same river with us. Is there anybody that we love that we have not said the three magic words “I love you” to? Why not do what Stevie Wonder did in his song, “I just called to say `I love you.’”

Is there anybody in our life that we are denying love to?

CONCLUSION

It’s never too late to change. At the end of today’s gospel we have the message that when we are young we often can go about as we please, but when we are older, things often change. And we have all heard people moan and groan because they never told another that they loved them and it was too late. Death or distance or too many distractions got in the way.

Peter was lucky. The Risen Christ came back to him and gave him a second chance. At a breakfast on a lake at daybreak Christ became present to Peter and gave him another chance to tell him that he loved him. And then Peter was given the chance to live his life in service for Christ and his people.

It is never to late to change. It’s never too late to tell the living as well as the dead that we love you. It’s never too late to realize that so many people all through our life have loved us so many times and in so many ways. “Don’t eat too fast. You might miss the love.”