The Eleventh Commandment

Gospel: John 21: 20-25

In the final lines of the final Gospel we find Jesus rebuking Peter for prying into the spiritual life of another disciple.  Peter wants to know the business of the beloved disciple, and Jesus will have none of it.  It is Peter's task - and ours - to follow the Lord, to do the works of healing, liberating, and feeding of others without perseverating on the business of others who are about that same work in the world.  As long as we are about the works of love and mercy we ought to let others be.

Just prior to this scene Jesus asked Peter to love him, then to feed his sheep, to build up the faith of others.  It is not the task of the Petrine ministry or any other to micromanage the faith of another.  It is to encourage and support those who have declared their intention to be followers of Jesus in the works of love and mercy, to give them the sacramental support and resources they need to carry out this mission in the world.

Micromanaging the faith of another leads to the death of faith.  It is the death of individual and communal faith.  If religion were less about this and more about encouragement and support in the work of love and mercy in the world there might be a greater faith presence among people.  When we are more about the cura pecuniarum and the cura aedificorum rather than the cura animarum then we have strayed from the way of Jesus.  Today is our day to recommit to the eleventh commandment and mind our business and build up others in the way of love and mercy.