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_{THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER
April 22, 2007}

"After they had eaten, Jesus said to Simon Peter, 'Simon, son of John, do you love me?'"  (John 21:15)  Here is an undisputed truth.  Every human heart was created with a hole in it…a hole that only love can completely fill.  This is especially true of young people, who many times try to give the impression that they need no one.

Four or five years back I led a retreat for seniors at Pacelli High School in Columbus. I came across a motivational /inspirational piece called "Masks".  I used it for a reflection and discussion with the students.  There was no indication of its author or what its source was.  All I know is that it really struck me back then.  The senseless, horrific tragedy that unfurled at Virginia Tech this past week brought back memories of "Masks" to me.

I want to share it with you.  Written from the viewpoint of a young person to an adult, it reads:

"Don't be fooled by me.  I wear a thousand masks, masks that I am afraid to take off.  For God's sake, don't be fooled.

I give the impression that I am secure, that confidence is my name and coolness my game.  And that I need no one!  Please don't believe me.

My surface may seem smooth, but my surface is my mask.  Beneath dwells the real me…in confusion, in fear, in aloneness.

That's why I frantically create a mask to hide behind, to shield me from the glance that knows.  But such a glance is precisely my salvation, my only salvation.  That is, if it is followed by acceptance, if it is followed by love.

But I don't tell you this.  I'm afraid your glance will not be followed by acceptance and love.  I'm afraid you'll think less of me, that you will laugh at me.  So I play the game…

I dislike the superficial game I'm playing; I'd like to be really genuine.  But you've got to help me.  Each time you're kind and gentle and encouraging, each time you try to understand because you really care, my heart grows wings.

I want you to know that.  I want you to know how important you are to me; how you can be the creator of the person that is me, if you choose.  Please choose!

It will not be easy for you.  The nearer you approach, the blinder I might strike back.  I fight against the very thing I cry out for.

But I am told that love is stronger than the strongest walls, and in this lies my hope…my only hope!

That moving passage should be read again and again by every parent, grandparent, teacher, priest, and caregiver.  It highlights, especially in wake of the tragedy of the Virginia Tech massacre, an important guideline for working with young people…especially problem or troubled young people.

We might express the guideline this way:  No one needs love more than someone who doesn't seem to deserve it!

Jesus stressed this very same point, found in Chapter 6 of Luke's Gospel, saying to his disciples:  "But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you…  For if you love only those who love you, what credit is that to you?  Even sinners love those who love them.  And if you do good only to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?  Even sinners do the same."

This teaching of Jesus touches on a important point that we must never lose sight of.  If we wait around until a person becomes lovable before we love them, we will wait around the rest of our lives.  It is precisely in the process of loving them that they become lovable!

That brings us to the question Jesus puts to Peter in today's Gospel: "Simon, son of John, do you love me?"  Three times Jesus puts the same question to Peter.  Three times Peter answers, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you."

Three times Jesus says, in effect, "Peter, reach out in love to others as I am reaching out in love to you."  Peter's triple affirmation of love erases his triple denial of Jesus!  And Jesus' triple response to Peter commissions Peter to succeed him as leader of the Church on earth.

Jesus commissions Peter to reach out in love to others, especially those who seem least deserving of it, just as his triple denial of his Master made him least deserving of his Master’s love.

Our sin is a denial of Jesus.  This past week the world witnessed at Virginia Tech a horrible sin by a very sick and disturbed young man, who seems to have never developed a sense of being loved.