Who's your favorite Pope?

Homily for 3^rd Sunday of Easter Year C 2016

Introduction

"Feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep."  With these words, Jesus entrusts Simon Peter with task of caring for the Church.

Because I am the first born child, whenever my mother had to be away from the house for most of the day, she too would say to me: "take care of your siblings."  I was nine or ten, the age at which Ugandan children start taking on independent responsibilities, including baby-sitting their siblings.  I certainly was not fully equipped for my tasks, but in our circumstances, mom had to make do with me. 

Scripture and Theology

So did Jesus.  He entrusts Peter, the guy who denied him three times a few weeks earlier, with caring for the sheep.  What was Jesus thinking hiring Peter for the top job of CEO of his mission?

Three elements in the story we have just heard help us to understand what Jesus is doing here: the setting in Galilee, the fishing trip and the charcoal fire.

You might remember that Galilee was the place where the Lord first met Peter and some of his fellow disciples.  Matthew's gospel, for example, tells us that as Jesus "was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen".” (4:18-19).  After the resurrection, what better place to return to, after they had all abandoned him, to start all over again!  And so, the Lord is meeting his disciples in Galilee, Ground Zero, the place where it all started, to send them off again on a new mission.

The second element of the story is the fishing.  Like every man from South Louisiana, Peter and his friends were avid fishermen.  After returning to Galilee from following Jesus, they had resumed their previous job – after all they had mouths at home to feed.  But on that night they caught nothing; perhaps having been away from fishing for three years, they had lost their touch.  Now the Lord appears to them and suggests: “Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something.”  Putting their fisherman pride to the side, they obey the stranger and indeed they catch a boatload of fish. 

Just like the return to Galilee, the fishing context also symbolizes a return of the disciples to their beginnings.  Not only had Jesus chosen them in Galilee, but even the first time, it was after another miraculous catch of fish (Lk. 5:1-11).  At that time, Jesus had told them: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Mt. 4:19).  Now after the resurrection, with another miraculous catch, he has the same message for them, that they are now to become fishers of men during his absence.  John's gospel even gives the small detail of how many fish they caught – 153.  Because 153 was thought to be the number of types of fish in the sea, it suggests universality of their; the disciples are called upon to catch men and women of all nations, races and languages.

Besides Galilee and the fishing, the charcoal fire is the third significant element  of the story.  Do you recall another fire in the gospels, the charcoal fire at which Peter denied the Lord, not once, not twice, but three times (Jn. 18: 15-18, 25-27)?  Now at a different fire, one on which Jesus is making breakfast, the Lord gives Peter a chance to retract his threefold denial, asking him three times: "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these [other disciples]?"  As we heard, three times, Peter responded that he loved the Lord.  And each time, the Lord entrusts Peter with a task: "feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep."

When my mother gave me virtually the same instruction, all I had to do was bathe my siblings, cook for them and put them to bed.  In the case of Peter, he has his work cut out for him; he is responsible for the salvation of all the disciples, for the whole Church.  Peter thus became the first Pope, the first papá or father of the whole Church, for that is what pope means.

Christian Life

Since Peter, Popes have carried on that same task of feeding and tending the lambs and sheep of the Church.  To be honest, some did a terrible job at it.  But most have done a great job, like the last three popes that we have had.  Let me share with you briefly how these successors of Peter have affected my life.

When Pope John Paul II he visited Uganda in 1993, I was in college seminary.  I was fortunate to attend one of his Masses and see him from about five feet away, as he walked to the altar.  Perhaps like every other 21 year-old, I was more interested in a photo opportunity with him, than listening to what he had to say.  But I still remember his message to Ugandans, which was "Be the light of the world."  And as I continued my seminary studies, I was to read a lot of what he had to say.  But his greatest influence on me was at his funeral in 2005, when from the media coverage I heard about his charisma, his numerous world travels to catch all 153 types of fish, and his constant message of "Do not be afraid" to a world caught in fear of nuclear war and recovering from the effects of the 1960s.

As for Pope Benedict XVI, I was fortunate that my time of graduate studies in Rome began when he had just been elected Pope.  While in Rome, I often saw him from a distance, at the Wednesday General papal audiences and the Sunday Angelus.  I was even once within five feet of him at a private audience, together with a thousand of my best friends, other priests studying in Rome; I saw close up how humble and shy a man he was.  But his greatest influence on me was that virtually in very class I took, we read his work, both what he wrote as Cardinal Ratzinger and his work as Pope Benedict.  Pope Benedict had a lot to teach.  He used his great intellect, always clear, precise and insightful, to teach the faith and the truth.  He reminded our world that has lost its way, of the eternal Truth that Jesus teaches.

And now we have another Peter, Pope Francis, the first non-European Pope in modern times.  Two years ago, I attended a Mass presided over by him in St. Peter's Basilica.  This time I was not five feet, but fifty feet away from him; but since I was right behind the altar, with a clear line of sight, I saw how reverently he celebrated the Mass. The biggest contribution of Pope Francis is that he always preaches a message of love and mercy.  He wants God's love and mercy to be fed to all God's sheep, especially the lost sheep: children and elderly, the sick and the disabled, prisoners and immigrants, people with same-sex attraction as well as the divorced and remarried.  Like Jesus himself, Pope Francis does not exclude anybody from the call to receive the Good News.

Conclusion

People will often ask me: "So, of the three popes, who is your favorite?"  Whenever I hear this question, I want to wring the neck of the person asking it, because Peter and the popes are not celebrities to be liked or disliked.  Their job is to feed the sheep and not to win a popularity contest.  In fact, at the end of today's gospel reading, Jesus prophesied that Peter would be killed for doing his job of tending the sheep.

The more fitting question should be the one Jesus asked Peter: "Do you love me?"  For if we love Jesus, then we shall listen to and like whichever Peter he sends to feed us, his sheep.  Whether it is Pope John Paul II who used his charisma to feed us with hope; or Pope Benedict who used his great intellect to to teach us faith; and now, Pope Francis, who continues to use his vast pastoral experience to remind us  of God's love and mercy.  And who knows what the next pope will feed us with?  We must like them all, because they feed us with the life-giving message of salvation.