Transformed—Into ‘Agape’ Love
All Things Catholic with Dr. Edward Sri
Ascension
5 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 23 October 2017
⏱️ 22 minutes
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Summary
Along the Sea of Galilee some 2,000 years ago, Peter was stunned when the Risen Jesus asked him, “Do you love me?” It was the word for “love” that got to him. Jesus didn’t speak of ordinary human affection. Another Greek word, phileo, describes that kind of love. Jesus instead uses the word agape, which describes a total, self-giving, sacrificial love.
And that is what’s so troubling for Peter. After Peter just denied Christ three times, he painful knows he is incapable of agape love. He is sad that the best he can offer is only the imperfect, human love of phileo.
And we often feel the same.
We know we don’t love as well as we should. Our love falls short. But the good news is God wants to do in us what he did in St. Peter. In a beautiful play on words, John’s Gospel chapter 21 shows how Jesus will lower himself to Peter’s level and accept Peter’s broken, imperfect gift of phileo love and transform it into agape. It doesn’t happen all at once. But from this point forward, Peter is a changed man. He will go on to lead like Christ, serve like Christ, teach like Christ and even suffer like Christ. Like his Master, Peter will be handed over to the Romans and stretched out on a cross as he is crucified upside down in Nero’s circus. At this climactic moment, as Peter gives the heroic witness of his martyrdom, he lives agape love in a most profound way.
The same Jesus who transformed Peter’s phileo love into agape will do the same in our hearts—if we follow him faithfully as a disciple.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Edward Sree, and welcome to all things Catholic Catholic where real faith meets real life. |
| 0:19.1 | Do you ever notice how your love runs short? |
| 0:22.7 | Jesus tells us in the Gospels we're supposed to love with all our heart, |
| 0:27.3 | with all our soul, with all our strength. |
| 0:30.4 | But in our day-to-day experience, we recognize we love God, but we don't love Him with all our heart. |
| 0:35.6 | We love him with an imperfect love. We love the people in our lives, certainly our spouse, our kids, our family, |
| 0:41.0 | our friends, our coworkers. But we know deep down we don't love them as well as we should |
| 0:46.1 | if you've experienced your love running short know that you're in good company |
| 0:50.3 | because that's where St Peter was and I want to tell you a great story |
| 0:53.7 | about Peter from the Gospels. I'm going to take you back 2,000 years ago along the |
| 0:58.6 | sea of Galilee. It's after Jesus is risen from the dead. He appears to Peter and he asked Peter these three questions, three times he says, |
| 1:07.0 | Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? Now, you know, at first glance, we is readers should be just thinking of course |
| 1:14.6 | Peter loves him of course he doesn't mean think about who Peter is I mean this is the man |
| 1:19.3 | who was the fisherman that left his fishing nets behind to become a disciple of Jesus. |
| 1:25.0 | He's made many sacrifices to follow Jesus in his public ministry for three years as a disciple. |
| 1:32.0 | Surely Peter loves Jesus. |
| 1:35.2 | But not only was Peter one of the many disciples, |
| 1:38.8 | he was one of the few chosen by Jesus |
| 1:42.2 | to go and become an apostle. Jesus is entrusting his proclamation |
| 1:47.4 | of the kingdom to 12 men and Peter's one of those 12 apostles. That's pretty |
| 1:51.7 | incredible. Surely Peter the apostle loves |
| 1:54.6 | Jesus and not only was Peter one of the 12 he's actually part of an inner circle |
... |
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