3rd Sunday of Easter (C) – May 4, 2025

St. Paul – Lyons, KS

Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41; Psalm 30:2, 4-6, 11-13; Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-19

The Four Loves

2020 was the worst, right? 2020—2020 is now pretty much synonymous with, “The worst.” For most, anyway. But not for us, right? Not for us! Why? Because 2020 was the official beginning of the Mahomes dynasty, Super Bowl 54! For me, though—I don’t even remember they won that year, not specifically anyway! I remember the 2020 Super Bowl for something different. I remember the 2020 Super Bowl as having the best Super Bowl commercial of all time. All time! And from New York Life—of all companies! New York Life—a life insurance company!

But in this commercial—in one minute!—New York Life gave a brilliant introduction to love. It starts off by telling us that the ancient Greeks had four words for love. I’ve told you before, English is the worst language—we have one word for love: “love.” Spanish has two, so that’s a little better. But Greek—Greek has four: Philia, Storge, Eros, Agape. Why? Well, philia is the kind of love between friends. You don’t love them, but you do love them. Storge—storge is the kind of love you have for your grandparents or a teacher or coach. Again, you don’t loooove them, but you do have a real love for them; Greeks called it storge. Eros, from which we derive the word “erotic”—yes, this is that, “I loooove you” kind of love; a real love, but that passionate attraction. So philia, storge, eros—and the last one is agape. Agape, as New York Life said—agape is love as an action, love as a decision, love as saying, “I am going to do what is best for you even if its not the best for me, or if it is difficult.” This is the kind of love that involves sacrifice. This is the love of heroes. You can love your friends this way, your grandparents, teachers, girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, wife—even your enemies! Ok. So, the Gospels were written in Greek. So I want you to guess: when Jesus talks about love, the commandment to love, which word do you think he uses? Yeah, agape.

In today’s Gospel (this very famous scene—so this is after the Resurrection,   after the disciples have seen Jesus at least twice)—here in this famous scene on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, probably near the exact same spot Jesus first called Peter to leave his nets and follow him—and Peter did! Peter left everything and followed Jesus!—here,Jesus uses the word agape when He asks Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me, agape me more than these?” Agape. Agape, that highest love—the selfless, sacrificial, life-giving kind of love—“Simon, do you agape me?” Again, think back, Palm Sunday, Good Friday—not too long before this scene Peter had said, “I would even die for you!” (John 13:37). But in this scene, on that day—after having denied Jesus three times, left him to die alone—Peter’s response (“Simon, son of John, do you love me, agape me more than these?”)—Peter responds, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” And that’s why English is the worst! Peter responds, “Yes, Lord, you know that I philia love you.” He responds with philia—friendship love, a lesser love. It’s real, but it’s not agape.

The Challenge of Agape Love

We experienced this too, right? We say we’d take a bullet for someone, for our spouse, for our kids—agape love! But when it’s time to make the smaller sacrifices—getting up early, biting our tongue in an argument, or showing up when it’s inconvenient—suddenly, our love looks a little…philia. We want to love with agape—but we often discover we’re not there. Amen?

Or think about the early days of a relationship. When you first fall in love, it’s electric—every moment feels alive, it’s easy, you stay up all night, drive anywhere, money is no object. And faith can be like that too. I see our kids here today ready for their First Communion, just brimming with excitement, can’t wait! Their eyes are wide, their hearts are full. But what happens as time goes on? In a relationship, in marriage, and even in our faith—the newness fades. And not necessarily because we hate the person, not because we hate God! But because life begins to lull us into complacency. Even the Eucharist, the Mass, this incredible gift—it can become “normal,” unextraordinary, boring, any not important. Ready for agape love at the beginning! And then—then the relationship gets cold, boring, the excitement wears off—just friends, philia. And rarely is this intentional. It’s just… time. Life. Distractions. Busyness. Discouragement. Just life.

Peter’s Challenge Is Our Challenge

And we should feel in good company! Because Peter—Peter who met Jesus, gave everything to him, followed him, was ready to die for him—Peter who had seen Jesus risen and alive from the dead!!—Peter, as we hear today—Peter went back to fishing. Peter returned to his old life, his old routine, his old habits. Again, not because he hated Jesus or something, no! He just went back to what was familiar, what was “normal,” what was safe. That’s what Jesus asks him, “Simon, do you love me more than these?” The “these” refers to the fish! His boat!

Again, we often do the same, don’t we? We have a powerful moment—a retreat, a prayer answered, a Mass that hits us hard, we are really feeling it for a while—and then Monday comes, a few months go by, and we’re back to “normal.” Months go by and we haven’t really prayed, or gone to Mass, given much thought to Jesus’ call to leave everything, to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him. And we don’t hate him! We just think of him as a friend—a friend that we don’t really keep up with much anymore. Our faith, Jesus, our belonging to Jesus in and through the Church—it just kind of falls to the side like a good friend that we just don’t talk to or hang out with much anymore. “Yes Lord, you know that I love you! I just…philia love you.”

Total Eucharistic Devotion, Total Devotion to Jesus

But I think that’s why these kids here are such a help to us. The faith of children—the faith of those who are most faithful, wherever they are. One of the most inspiring that I’ve ever heard is of a little girl. In China, during the Boxer Rebellion, about 100 years ago, Chinese soldiers were ordered to destroy Catholic churches across the country. They took tabernacles and sacred vessels, and imprisoned Catholic priests. There was one church in the Chinese countryside that was destroyed, while a small girl hid in the back, unnoticed but observant. Little girl, about 8 years old. She watched as the priest was arrested, as the tabernacle was torn away, as the Eucharist in the tabernacle was thrown on the floor. The girl noticed where the Hosts landed, and noticed that the soldiers never bothered to pick them up. She went back to her home that afternoon, and told her parents what she had seen. And that night, slipping past guards and police officers, she snuck back into the Church, knelt before the Eucharist all over the ground, and spent an hour in adoration. After she had spent time in prayer, she consumed one of the Hosts, and secretly made her way back home.

Thirty-two hosts had been thrown across the church floor, and for 32 consecutive nights this little girl went back to the Church. Spending an hour in adoration, and one by one consuming the Eucharist. On the last night, after the girl had received the Eucharist, she accidentally woke a sleeping guard, who chased her down and beat her to death. A martyr for the faith. A love for Jesus, an agape love for Jesus, Jesus present in the Eucharist, that shaped her life—definitively shaped her life. She was willing to die for this.

And the story of this little girl’s martyrdom was then passed from home to home, and from priest to priest, and eventually it was heard by the young Father Fulton Sheen. When Father Sheen heard the story of this young martyr—his life is changed. He makes a promise to spend at least one hour, one hour every day for the rest of his life in Adoration. The witness of her faith, her love, her agape love changed him. She didn’t just love Jesus with philia—she loved Him with agape, to the point of death.

The Eucharist Shapes Our Life

Like I’ve been saying since Easter, every one of us shares that same pure and simple faith that Jesus rose from the dead. The question, though, is does that faith now shape our life? (“Faith is not a thing which one ‘loses,’ we merely cease to shape our lives by it.”) Ultimately the question is, “Do we love him?” Do we love him with an agape love? Or, like Peter—do we often find ourselves “fishing” again, going back to life before Jesus, going back to a life where our faith doesn’t really shape our life, just checking off the box?

The good news—the good news is that even if we find ourselves there, there with that imperfect love, a philia love, we can still begin again. Do you know why? Because there is one time—one time!—in all of the Gospels where Jesus uses the word philia instead of agape. Wanna know where? On the third time—so Jesus asks the first time, “Do you agape love me?” He asks a second time, “Do you agape love me?” And Peter responds, “Yeah…I philia love you, I philia love you.” But the third time!—the third time Jesus says, “Ok. Simon, do you philia love me?” (The only time Jesus uses philia.) The third time Jesus says, “Ok, Simon, let’s start where you’re at. We’ll start there.” Jesus takes the love Peter does have, and then invites him forward, to begin again. A few verses later he invites him, just as on that first day—he invites him, “Follow me.” And if you don’t know the story, Peter begin to follow again. And Peter eventually does die for Jesus, his love reaches that agape level—self-less, sacrificial, life-giving level—and he dies crucified upside down where St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome was later built, buried directly underneath the altar at St. Peter’s Basilica.

Ok. The question for us: “Do you agape love him?” And maybe your answer is, “Yeah…if I’m being honest, I philia love him.” And that’s ok. But today, the Lord invites you, “Let’s begin there. Let’s not stay there, but let’s begin there.” And like he does with Peter, we can begin to follow him again, allow our faith to shape our lives, and grow into people of love, agape love, laying our lives down for Jesus type love, not just “going back to fishing” and busyness and distractions and sports and work and everything else kind of philia love, no. A love where Jesus Christ, the Church, the Eucharist, our faith is everything. And like we heard in our second reading, we can join in with “every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, everything in the universe, [and] cry out: ‘To the one who sits on the throne and to the Lamb [the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world]—to the Lamb be blessing and honor, glory and might, forever and ever.’ …‘Amen.’”