Ecclesiologically, Henri de Lubac schematized the first two Christian millenia in the following way: the first millennium by the assertion that "the Eucharist makes the Church" and the second millenium by its reverse: "the Church makes the Eucharist." Perhaps in the third millenium we can work towards a genuine Catholic et/et- "the Eucharist makes the Church and the Church makes the Eucharist." I believe this was something of the vision expressed by Pope John Paul II in his Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente.
It stands to reason: no Eucharist, no Church and no Church, no Eucharist. Also, no Eucharist, no Christ and no Church no Christ. This has bearing on our Gospel for this Third Sunday of Easter because, along the with last Sunday's Gospel (also taken from John), it shows that the Eucharist is the primary place to encounter the Risen Lord.
The Petrine dimension of today's Gospel highlights the necessity of the Church. It's difficult today to effectively communicate that the Church is necessary for salvation, not incidental to it.
One way of understanding today's Gospel is that by declaring his love for the Lord three times, Peter undoes, repents for, his denial of Jesus during His Passion, which, in John's Gospel unfolds in chapter 18. In John 18, Peter denies he knows Jesus twice. So, here, Peter affirms once more than he denied. While worthy of consideration, on its own this would be a shallow understanding.
It is important to point out that in this encounter Jesus uses two different words for love. The first two times, the word for love placed on the Lord's lips by the inspired author is agape. Agape is unconditional, self-sacrificing love. It is the kind of love that empowered Jesus to endure His Passion and Crucifixion. In response to Jesus' first two questions, Peter uses the word phileo. Phileo refers more to a brotherly or friendship type of love, a love less complete, less robust than agape.
Meeting Peter where he is, when asking him a third time, the Lord who uses phileo. This remains the word with which Peter replies. I believe the point here is that Jesus was seeking to stretch Peter, to move him from phileo to agape, to love like God loves, which is what it means to be holy. But Peter, as bad as he no doubt felt about his betrayal, isn't there yet. Nonetheless, the Risen Lord commands Peter to feed and tend His flock.
With what does Peter feed the Lord's flock, His lambs, His sheep, His Church, but the Eucharist?
The Lord then tells Peter:
Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to goAnd so, with His final words in this pericope- "Follow me"- the Lord summons Peter to the cross.
The Crucifixion of Saint Peter, by Caravaggio, 1601.Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome.
I know from reading Peter Hebblethwaite's outstanding biography Paul VI: The First Modern Pope that, especially in his later years as he implemented the Conciliar reforms, Pope Paul very much saw in the Lord's words to Peter in today's passage something of where he found himself in old age. This made me think, too, of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.
In the case of Pope Benedict, he was elected Successor of Peter in 2005 at 78 years of age. Toward the latter part of his many years of service as Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine for the Faith (he served from 1981 until becoming Pope) he tried to resign on more than once. Once after being hospitalized for exhaustion. He longed to move back to Germany, to a house in the Bavarian woods that he owned with his brother, Georg, also a priest. There he wanted to pray, study, and write. But Pope John Paul II would not accept his resignation. And then, he became the Bishop of Rome. After resigning, he lived out his remaining years within the walls of Vatican City.
Pope Francis became Pope at age 76. When he arrived in Rome in the Spring of 2013, he had been serving as the archbishop of Buenos Aires more than a year past the retirement age for bishops, which is 75. He described coming to Rome for the Conclave feeling tired, worn out, and ready to retire. He, too, was led in old age where he did not want to go. I think it is impossible to imagine how lonely being pope must be at times. As I mentioned in my first post after Francis' death, he never returned to Argentina and so he never went back to the city he loved so much.
Just as the Risen Lord's question about loving Him unconditionally and totally is directed to all who would follow Him, His summons "Follow me" isn't just for Peter and his successors. It is for all of us. Like Peter, I suspect when it comes to loving Jesus Christ most of us aren't there yet- I'm certainly not. Actively participating in the Church is hard and sometimes very hard.
I admit to once in awhile, when either coming back from or heading to something ecclesial, feeling like I could never go back and be the better for it. But as Peter replies in John 6 to the Lord's question will he, too, abandon Him, to whom else would I go?
For those of us who are heavily involved in Church ministry, we've experienced things at the hands of fellow Christians that are deeply hurtful and cruelly harsh. But it is precisely experiencing and, with the Lord's help, working through these things that we learn what the Lord seeks to teach us, not only by word but through His example. He stretches us, too, from phileo to agape.
I have little doubt that by continuing to follow Jesus, Peter, if not before, then as he was being crucified in the Roman circus, having moved from phileo to agape, was able to say, "Lord, I love you." This is the inverse property of redemption: crucifixion/resurrection and resurrection/crucifixion. There is no Easter without Good Friday and without Easter Good Friday is just the terror of a Godless universe.
The Eucharist makes the Church and the Church makes the Eucharist. The Eucharist is what makes the Church Christ's Body, the universal sacrament of salvation.
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