7th Friday of Easter

At the end of Easter, the liturgy gives us a reading of profound Easter connotation. The three times Peter refused to acknowledge that he knew the Lord are now overcome and superseded by the three “I love you” that Jesus provokes from of Peter. The weakness, the inconsistency, the fear is overcome by grace, “Feed my sheep”, and followed by a call, “Follow me”.

This is in a nutshell what Easter is all about. Peter was the same person before and after Jesus’ resurrection. However, after the resurrection something had happened to him. He is reconciled by the only one who could reconcile him, Jesus himself.

This reconciliation is not ignoring Peter’s weakness or forgetting Peter’s denials. It is above all assuming and restoring. Assuming the consequences of the fault (Jesus accepted the consequences of this denial by dying on the cross) and also restoring the person by replacing betrayal with fidelity.

At the end of this one more Easter season we are still called by the Lord “to follow him” like Peter. Follow him to accept the consequences of our wrong choices and called to be effectively restored back to faithfulness.