Mind Your Business

Gospel: John 21: 20-26

Peter should be feeling pretty good.  He has made up for his three denials and Jesus has given him an important job of feeding his flock.  But Peter just can't help himself.  He sees John and the old jealousies return.  Peter has to know what Jesus has in store for John: will he be more important than me?  And once again Jesus has to put Peter in his place: mind your business and your own relationship with God.  

How often do we meddle in other people's relationships with God?  We somehow think we know all things because we have a relationship with God that we can dictate to others what that should look like for them.  But the only thing given to us is our own relationship with God: to accept God's mercy offered to us and to extend that mercy to others; to love other people as Jesus has loved us within the circumstances and contexts given to us in our life.  And we are to leave other people to that same relationship and freedom.

The rebuke Jesus gives to Peter is a rebuke to us as well.  God has given us our task and mission and others have theirs.  I can no more understand another person's relationship with God than I can of their relationship with their spouse or some other person.  I can only know my own relationships and attend to them in love as God has called us to do.