Loving You in my heart Lord is not enough. For anyone can love and honour You by their lips. I know I am being challenged to prove my love for You by feeding Your lambs. Not only by feeding your lambs but looking after and feeding Your sheep.
Where are your lambs Lord? Are they to be found in the toddlers, the young, the youths of my community? What shall I nurture them with? How shall I guide them? Shall I teach them that they should lead chaste, Holy lives? That loving You is to love Your Word which gives us life to the full. Shall I teach them to pray so that they might enter into Your presence and fall into Your loving embrace? How different should I care for Your sheep? Likewise and more? Shall I seek out Your other sheep not of our flock? In order to feed both Your lambs and sheep I must ensure they are well and healthy enough to be fed, which means tending to the sick and those who cannot care for themselves.
It is indeed a daunting task that lies ahead; Still if You lead me Lord, I will follow. Amen
First reading
Acts 25:13-21 ·
‘I ordered Paul to be remanded until I could send him to Caesar’King Agrippa and Bernice arrived in Caesarea and paid their respects to Festus. Their visit lasted several days, and Festus put Paul’s case before the king. ‘There is a man here’ he said ‘whom Felix left behind in custody, and while I was in Jerusalem the chief priests and elders of the Jews laid information against him, demanding his condemnation. But I told them that Romans are not in the habit of surrendering any man, until the accused confronts his accusers and is given an opportunity to defend himself against the charge. So they came here with me, and I wasted no time but took my seat on the tribunal the very next day and had the man brought in. When confronted with him, his accusers did not charge him with any of the crimes I had expected; but they had some argument or other with him about their own religion and about a dead man called Jesus whom Paul alleged to be alive. Not feeling qualified to deal with questions of this sort, I asked him if he would be willing to go to Jerusalem to be tried there on this issue. But Paul put in an appeal for his case to be reserved for the judgement of the august emperor, so I ordered him to be remanded until I could send him to Caesar.’
Gospel
John 21:15-19
Feed my lambs, feed my sheepJesus showed himself to his disciples, and after they had eaten he said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these others do?’ He answered, ‘Yes Lord, you know I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He replied, ‘Yes, Lord, you know I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Look after my sheep.’ Then he said to him a third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was upset that he asked him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ and said, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep.‘I tell you most solemnly, when you were young you put on your own belt and walked where you liked; but when you grow old
you will stretch out your hands, and somebody else will put a belt round you
and take you where you would rather not go.’In these words he indicated the kind of death by which Peter would give glory to God. After this he said, ‘Follow me.’
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