***
Gospel: John 21: 15-17
After Jesus had revealed himself to his disciples and
eaten breakfast with them, he said to Simon Peter,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
He then said to Simon Peter a second time,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
He said to him, “Tend my sheep.”
He said to him the third time,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time,
“Do you love me?” and he said to him,
“Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
***
***
Today we celebrate the Feast of Saint John Paul II. Many of us remember where we were when we heard the news that he had died, entering eternal life on April 2, 2005.
It was my brother’s 21st birthday.
I was a sophomore at Seton Hall University, just a few months away from becoming Catholic. I remember being inspired by his life and example, especially his mantra: “Do not be afraid.”
***
The Lord commands us more than 300 times in the bible to not be afraid. It’s a call John Paul was reminded of throughout his life.
When he experienced the death of his mother at 9 years old, and then his father, and then his brother; when he was left alone without his deepest familial roots, the Lord said to him, “Do not be afraid.”
When the Nazi’s invaded his homeland, closed his university, and forced him to work in a factory, he remembered those words, “Do not be afraid.”
When war broke out and he risked his life entering a clandestine seminary to study for the priesthood, he remembered, “Do not be afraid.”
When he became a professor teaching at the only Catholic university behind the Iron Curtain in Lublin; when he was called to become a bishop for the persecuted flock in Poland; when he was elected pope in 1978, called to feed God’s sheep…
“Do not be afraid.”
And when he breathed his last on April 2, 2005, he must’ve felt those words ring in the deepest chambers of his soul, words which guided him since his youth:
“Do not be afraid.”
***
John Paul’s journey is, in a sense, our journey. At certain times in life, we all need to remember these words of the Lord.
May John Paul intercede for us, that God would give us the strength to follow him, free from any fear of the present or the future.
Pope Saint John Paul II, pray for us.
***
***
Image credits: (1) Redbubble (2) Catholic News Agency (3) X