I was at one time in my life a rather surly teenager. I knew it all and my mom could not tell me anything about the world. We would have arguments about the most basic of things including those chores that I was supposed to be taking care of, like cutting the grass or raking leaves in the fall.

     

There are certainly times I am still this way with family and friends, though I hope they are fewer than when I was a teenager. I was reminded of how I acted, as a teenager, by Nicole and Zachary as they have been going through those same times. All with similar attitudes to what I had, so I wonder how my mom allowed me to live through those times. I can only imagine their thoughts about how I was acting.

I do know the main reason my children have survived this period in their lives is the unconditional love that Karen and I have for the two of them. Though they may still not realize, just as I didn’t, how close they have come to driving their mom totally crazy, they will at some point in their lives.

We all, I am sure, have had experiences like this over the course of our lifetimes where someone close to us drives us to the point that we want to shake them until they start using the sense we know that God gave them.  We have had to control how we reacted out of our love for the person in front of us. We may have even taken some heat for the person since we were contacted when something was not done correctly or maybe even done at all.

Now imagine you are being hauled before the authorities for preaching and teaching about Jesus. They are not fond of the fact you have done this which is leading people to follow you and not them. Would you feel relieved in the way the apostles were? They were ecstatic that they were found worthy to be chastised by the Sanhedrin for talking about Jesus. Eventually, all of them would be found worthy enough that they would die for teaching the things that Jesus had taught them.

We should all be talking about how Jesus is the way to salvation, not just in church, but out amongst our friends and neighbors. This does not need to be an in your face discussion, but we should certainly be able to discuss this with our friends. While we may receive the same response we do from our teenagers at times, the object is to help others attain salvation and we are all called to assist in this. This is an area I know that I fall short of on many occasions.

When I was younger and I would get in those situations where the outcome was not what I wanted or expected I went back to the people I knew loved me and would help me through the situation. My mom would always be there in order to guide me through it, even when I hated the answer I began to realize that with their experience they had answers I did not.

The disciples were like this after they had not caught any fish and Jesus told them to cast their net over the right side of the boat. When they followed instructions given to them by the one who loved them, they reaped the rewards. There was even a meal waiting for them when they came ashore, even though the initially they did not recognize Jesus.

We, also, have had the opportunity to turn our back on those who loved us the most as the disciples did. Of the 12 disciples at the last supper, one betrayed Jesus, one denied knowing him and the remaining 10 went into hiding. Now we all know the story of how Peter denied Jesus three times as Jesus was being led to his death. Do we turn our back on Jesus when we are under pressure and may get in trouble if we acknowledge him?

Now Peter is given an opportunity to atone for his mistake in the Gospel we hear today. He is asked three times by Jesus if he loves him. By the third time you can almost imagine the impetuous child beginning to come out when he says; “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you” I can guarantee my mom could see me in that statement, though there was certainly a good amount of attitude behind the statement I would have given. The feeling of, I have already answered this question honestly twice why are you asking me this question one more time. As I got older I realized when this happened it was usually when I might not have been as truthful in my answers as Peter was to Jesus and my mom would have already known the answer wasn’t exactly what I had said.

Jesus was in his own way forgiving Peter for the denial that he had made. His threefold questioning was a way to forgive for the threefold denial. Of course, after each one of the answers, there was a command on what to do. He was giving Peter the things he needed to do in order to build up Jesus’ church here on earth. Now the disciples all went and followed his commands and were found worthy to die for his name.

We are all given the same opportunities to receive and to give forgiveness to others. We are called to do this and we are expected to. When we fall short with our family there is normally forgiveness, sometimes it takes a long time for it to come, but we are always forgiven. It is the same with God if we truly ask for his forgiveness he will give it to us, though then we are expected not to commit the same sins over and over again.

When we can expand this forgiveness, love and compassion past our immediate family we walk more with Jesus. When we expand our forgiveness, love and compassion to those who persecute us as was shown by Jesus and the disciples we are truly living out our Christian way of life. It is not easy, and as we have been reminded before, being Christian, truly Christian is not for wimps. Are we willing to make the commitment to act as true Christians to ALL? This includes the lame, the terrorist,  those we disagree with us, yes even the politicians in our country deserve our forgiveness, love and compassion.