“Do you love me?” In this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus asks Peter this question three times. Most scripture scholars agree that the reason Jesus asked Peter three times was so that Peter would be able to repair his triple denial of our Lord. Just as Peter denied Jesus three times so now he would three times express his love for him.
“Do you love me?” Any serious follower of Jesus Christ must prayerfully consider this question because love for Jesus is the foundation of our spiritual lives. And so Jesus invites us to look into our hearts and to respond to him. Our response cannot be one of mere lip service. Truly loving Jesus leads to significant change in our lives.
How do we love Jesus, practically speaking? First and foremost we love Jesus with our hearts. This means that Jesus must be our first love. He must come before every thing and every one; our hearts must belong completely to him. This holds true for every Christian, regardless of their vocation. Jesus Christ must be our first love because he first loved us to the point of dying for our salvation. Loving Jesus with our hearts means that we let nothing else occupy that central place in our hearts. If Jesus is our first love, we will make a daily commitment to spending quality time with him in prayer.
We also love Jesus with our minds. This means that Jesus must occupy our thoughts. He must influence everything we do in our lives. Loving Jesus with our minds means we think of him frequently throughout the day; we speak to him throughout the day; we know that he is with us at every moment. It means that we do our best, with God’s grace, to reject sinful thoughts that lead us away from Jesus. Loving Jesus with our minds means that we allow our minds to be shaped by the truths of the Catholic Faith that lead us to live the Christian life more fully.
Loving Jesus means that we keep pure the temple of our bodies and that we love, respect and serve others. Whatever our state in life we strive to keep ourselves chaste. We allow the Holy Spirit to shape our passions so that they don’t rule us. True love of Jesus, however, always overflows to others. We commit to serving others, particularly the neediest among us. In fact, one of the fruits of living a chaste life is that we become more and more attentive to the needs of others; we become more selfless.
“Do you love me?” Jesus addressed this question to us, not just to Peter. Are we ready to respond like Peter: “Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you.”
Father Michael Najim is Spiritual Director of Our Lady of Providence Seminary, Providence, as well as Catholic Chaplain at LaSalle Academy, Providence.
