” “In today’s catechesis, the Pope lingered on the conversation between Peter and Jesus on Lake Tiberias, with Jesus using the verb “agapào” to ask Peter for “unconditional, total and unqualified love”, and Peter answering with the verb “filéo”, which “means a friendly, tender but not all-absorbing love”. “It seems to suggest said the Holy father as he commented Peter’s final answer (“Oh Lord, you know everything, you know I love you”) that Jesus had adapted to Peter, instead of the other way round! It is precisely God’s adapting he added that comforts the disciple, who had experienced the suffering of unfaithfulness. Here he gains that confidence that enabled him to follow Jesus through to the end”. From that day onwards, Peter followed Jesus “fully aware of his own weakness, but this awareness did not put him off”, because “he knew he could rely on the presence of the Resurrected on his side. From the naïve enthusiasms of the initial endorsement, through to the painful experience of repudiation and the cry of conversion, Peter got to trust his own life to that Jesus who had adapted to his poor love”. “In the same way, we follow Him added the Holy Father off the cuff because we know Jesus accepts us in our poor love”.
