The Church we need

Jesus founded the Church and in turn it is still being founded in the Risen Lord. We've always thought of the Church in terms of a finished project. Time and again we bring up talk about the much needed renewal of the Church. But today's three readings make us think whether instead we should talk about the 'refounding' of the Church. World scenarios change, and as Jesus warns Peter in today's Gospel, "when you grow old you will stretch out your hands and somebody else will take you where you would rather not go".

The Gospel today gives account of the special encounter between Jesus and Peter taking place on the shore of the Lake of Tiberias where Peter is entrusted with his mission. In the way John recounts the conversation, there is a very significant play of words between the Greek fileo, which means the love of friendship, and agapao, meaning love without reserve, total and unconditional. Peter had known the bitter sadness of infidelity, the drama of his own weakness, and Jesus makes him understand that his poor love suffices. From that day, Peter followed the Master with the awareness of his own fragility.

It was a long journey for Peter that made him a trustworthy witness, rock of the Church, because he was constantly open to the action of the Spirit of Jesus. It was sincerity that made strong Peter's weak and fragile faith. Because our strength comes from God's faithfulness, not from ours, and God's faithfulness towards us does not depend on our faithfulness towards him.

This is Peter's story and ours. It is the hope we celebrated in Easter, the hope on which Christ's Church continues to be built up in history. Jesus rose truly from death to life; but the Church continues to celebrate that in time as a pilgrim Church, still journeying through its dark nights and while being built up on the fragility of its members.

It is quite intriguing that while in the Gospel Peter is invested with responsibility and authority, in the first reading from Acts, which chronologically comes after this Gospel account, Peter himself objects to the High Priest that "obedience to God comes before obedience to men". The one just given authority, acknowledges the primacy of God where authority is concerned! This has always been a bone of contention in Christian life and in our Christian communities: how are we to harmonise what comes from true discernment of God's will, with obedience to the authority of the Church?

Authority in the Christian community is rooted not in a sort of transference of power, but in love, and in a love which is also weak and fragile, like Peter's. This is constitutive of our being Church, of the Church being an institution yet different from any other institution. But we still perpetuate in our communities' images of authority that have nothing to do with what Jesus meant his Church to be. We need to let go of long-held views of the Church that are not contemplated in the Gospel. At the centre is love. Love is the key.

In this day and age we are constantly acknowledging that there is less respect for Christianity as a source of moral teaching, especially when it is meant just to tell people what they must or must not do. Yet people still look up to the Church for spiritual guidance. "Feed my lambs, feed my sheep", said Jesus to Peter. We still have a long way to go to discover the truth that our God is not a moralist and that religion is in the first place not about morality, but rather about praising and worshipping the one God as Lord of life and history.