Readings: Acts 28:16-20, 30-31; Psalm 11; John 21:20-25.
After Jesus had entrusted Peter with the responsibility of feeding His sheep, He called him (Peter) to follow Him. Peter also wanted to know what would happen to John, perhaps to compare their fate. Jesus told him that the plans He had for John should not be his concern and that he should just focus on Him (Jesus) and follow.
There are two great lessons for us here:
A. Our lives are not to be compared with others and we shouldn’t be too worried, jealous or concerned about the life of another person. Jesus wants us to focus and follow. Everyone has different stories, different crosses, different purposes, and everyone is a unique mystery.
B. The Lord will not answer every question we ask. He won’t reveal some things to us. We do not need to know every detail; all we need to do is to trust and follow. Many of our questions in life won’t ever be answered. Many things will remain a mystery and some of our questions will be answered only after we have first trusted and obeyed.
Finally, we read in the Gospel that there was a rumour about what Jesus had said concerning John. People claimed that Jesus had said that John would not die and this rumour seemed substantiated by the fact that the other disciples were dying and John lived to a ripe old age. Although it seemed like the rumour was true, it wasn’t – that was not what Jesus said. This in itself is a lesson to us. We cannot believe everything people say, what people claim the Lord is saying to them or what they say someone said or did. I expect we all know how it hurts when we are accused of saying something that we didn’t say.
You will notice that in the First Reading, Paul was putting the record straight for the Jews in Rome because he knew that the Jews in Jerusalem would spread all kinds of false news, calumny and misleading information about him, so that he would be hated and rejected in Rome.
There is great wisdom in being slow to believe, judge, spread or act on what we cannot verify. Lies now wear the costumes of truth. May the Spirit of Truth help us to distinguish between truth and error and to always hold unto what is true.
Sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Baraka-Gukena Okami on May 27, 2023