Ostium Catholic

Festus cannot adjudicate Paul's case because the controversy falls outside Roman law. But he names it with accidental precision: a certain Jesus who had died but whom Paul claimed was alive. The resurrection is the thing. Festus cannot rule on it but he cannot dismiss it either - it is what the whole argument is about.

Do you love me? Jesus asks Peter three times. In your twenties the question can feel strange because the expected answer is obvious - of course you love him. But the question is asked into the specific place where the love failed, and that is where it needs to be answered. Peter answers from the deepest honest place: Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. That is the prayer for the person whose love is real and has also failed: the appeal to the Lord's knowing of both things at once.

When you grow old, you will be led where you do not want to go. In your twenties that sentence is theoretical. It is also preparation. The cross comes for everyone in some form, and the follow me is spoken before it arrives so you have something to follow when it does.

Answer the question: do you love me? Not as a performance. Sit with it. Where in your life has the love failed recently - a failure of faithfulness, a denial in some form? Bring it to the Lord's omniscience: you know everything. You know that I love you. Let the commission follow from the honest answer.

Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you - and you know where the love has failed. Let me hear the question as restoration, not condemnation. And when the follow me leads where I don't want to go, let that be what I follow. Come, Holy Spirit. Alleluia. Amen.