Third Sunday of Easter, Year C (2025) - Fr Joseph Vnuk, OP

Some time over the next few weeks the Gospel we have just heard will be solemnly proclaimed at St Peter’s in Rome, and the question it poses three times will be addressed to the man, yet unknown, whom the college of cardinals will elect as the next successor of St Peter: “Do you love me?”  We are already praying for the guidance of the Holy Spirit as they make this choice; today’s readings help us reflect on what we are praying for.

Above all, we are seeking a man who loves Jesus, who can be a leader in love.  A man who, out of love for Jesus, loves the sheep that Jesus loves and leads them in love.  How do we see that love displayed in Peter?

We see it most dramatically in his desire to be with Jesus, leaping out of the boat and running through the shallow water.  We see it in a friendship which has both familiarity and also respect, as Peter wraps his cloak around himself to be suitably dressed for the occasion.

This love both leads and listens.  It leads, for the other disciples in the boat follow Peter to the shore.  It listens, because it is not Peter who first recognises Jesus, but John.  John is the first to perceive, but Peter listens to John, recognises the truth of what he says, and then acts.

Peter’s love for Jesus means that he does not come to him empty-handed; he brings some of the fish that he has caught.  And while all the disciples helped to catch the fish and bring them to shore, it is in a certain way Peter’s catch, as he was the one who started the fishing trip.  Of course, while the Gospel passage is talking about real fish that swim in a real lake, we cannot but think of Peter the fisherman who is now Peter the fisher of men.  Those fish represent the men, women and children who are captivated by the apostolic preaching and brought into the boat of the Church, who are to be set of fire by the love of Jesus to offer themselves to God, an offering that is symbolized and brought about by our Eucharistic meal with Jesus.

What is also significant is the way that Peter maintains the unity of that catch: 153 fish brought to Jesus without the net tearing or any escaping.

Nor should we overlook what we see Peter doing in the first reading, where he boldly tells the Jewish leaders that he will obey God and not any mere human being.  Jesus indicates this in his final words to Peter, about stretching out his hands and being taken where he would rather not go.  Out of love for Jesus, Peter will follow him, even when it means that he will not abandon the city of Rome during persecution, but go back there to be crucified.

And so we have a picture of the man whom Jesus chooses to be the leader of the apostles: a man who loves him intensely, a man who leads in evangelization and in offerings of worship, who leads in bold action, moving ahead, and yet also capable of bringing the whole Church with him, preserving its unity.  And a man who leads courageously, undaunted by the powers of the world and it threats.  We are earnestly praying that the college of cardinals will elect such a man to be our Pope, and that the one chosen will respond with the love, the readiness to listen, the boldness, and the self-sacrifice of Peter.

But as we pray earnestly for such a Pope, let us pray also that we may be ready to receive this gift from God.  We pray that we may follow him in the work of evangelization, going out into the shifting waters in the dark of the night.  We  pray that we may be ready to follow him in his bold moves and dramatic gestures, that we may have both familiarity with and respect for Jesus.  We pray that we may be those fish that Peter offers to Jesus to be placed on the burning fire of his Holy Spirit love, to offer ourselves as a fragrant sacrifice to God.  We pray that we may do our best to keep the unity that the successor of Peter is trying to maintain.  And we pray that we may have Peter’s boldness in standing up to the power of this world that try to suppress the truth in order to cover over their sinfulness, even if it means being crucified for Jesus.

To pray for a good Pope is not a prayer that the faint-hearted can make.  But just as Jesus asked so much of Jesus at that meal on the shore of the lake, when Peter was on fire with love, so we too ask that at this meal with Jesus we may be set on fire in the love of the Holy Spirit, to boldly ask and gratefully receive the Pope that Jesus would choose for us, so that one united Church may give ever greater praise and glory to the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Fr Joseph Vnuk, OP is the Regent of Studies and the Chaplain to Monash University, assigned to St Dominic's Priory, Melbourne.