By Thomas Tiscornia
Third Sunday of Easter
Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41 | Rv 5:11-14 | Jn 21:1-19
How often do we respond to Jesus’ question to Peter, “do you love me?” as Peter did, “you know that I love you”? If we stopped and thought about it, we, too, might be like Peter and grieve that Jesus has to ask. I think we would prefer to assume that Jesus already knows without having to ask. Well, love is often challenged at unexpected times and unexpected ways.
The disciples in today’s Gospel readings were going about with their lives fishing after having spent years following Jesus. Now, Jesus was no longer present with them. They must have shared their thoughts and experience of him among themselves. Here in this reading, we see that he did not abandon them. He met them again at a lakeside, and he ate with them. Imagine what the disciples must have thought. What was their conversation like? How many challenges did they face later as they began their mission to spread the news and their rejoicing?
Very simply, Jesus asks Peter if he loved him, and Peter responded “yes” each time. This is a question some of us — or perhaps all of us — face daily. How do we live out our answer to that question?
My experience living in Sudan gave me first hand witness to people who were challenged to live out their faith. In the late 90’s, two of us Maryknoll missioners were in a situation where we were forbidden to pray openly with the people. It happened in Babanusa, a town in western Sudan. We were told that there was “no church in Babanusa.” But the Church, and the people of faith, were there nonetheless. We spent time with the people, we visited and ate with them — not fish and bread but asida and beans. Their faith, their “yes” to Jesus’ question, gave us support. About these restrictions the faithful said simply, “we are used to this.”
There was Maria Stefano from the South, her son Juma in the military. She had no fear of displaying her faith by wearing a white dress with a large red cross on Christmas day. Such great yet simple faith gave witness to the risen Christ.
So many people have responded, even today, with Peter’s “yes” in spite of the consequences. Bishop Macram Max Gassis several times gave witness to the Nuba genocide before Congress. No wonder the Sudanese government declared him persona non grata in his own country.
How are you challenged in your spiritual life? How do you live your answer to Jesus’ question: Do you love me?
Maryknoll Father Thomas Tiscornia, originally from Hoboken, New Jersey, was ordained in 1973. During his six decades in mission, he served in Sudan, Tanzania and South Sudan. Now retired, he lives in Los Altos, California.
To read other Scripture reflections published by the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, click here.
Featured image: A Sudanese woman prepares food at Takaya, a charity restaurant and a community kitchen, during the holy month of Ramadan in the state of Khartoum in Sudan March 14, 2025. The kitchen helps feed the displaced Sudanese in the Omdurman area recently controlled by army during the ongoing conflict. (OSV News photo/El Tayeb Siddig, Reuters)
