If you\u2019re looking for a loaded question, you\u2019ll find it right in the middle of this Sunday\u2019s gospel:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cDo you love me?\u201d<\/p>\n Here, it is more than a yes or no question. It is, in fact, a challenge. Days after Christ\u2019s passion, death and resurrection, the apostle who denied Jesus three times was asked three times a question that must have caused him more than a little discomfort.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you love me?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s safe to say, Jesus already knew the answer. He knew Peter\u2019s strengths and weaknesses.<\/p>\n He knew his blunders and mistakes and his sins. But that morning on the Sea of Galilee, he gazed with wisdom and mercy at the flawed figure who would continue the work he began and asked him if he loved him.<\/p>\n When Peter said he did, Jesus then gave him this deceptively simple task: \u201cFeed my sheep.\u201d<\/p>\n If Peter had any questions, Christ\u2019s two-word reply would have to suffice:<\/p>\n \u201cFollow me.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Those words are the same ones Jesus said on that seashore three years earlier, when he first chose his apostles. And now we hear them again\u2014a theme that almost acts as a coda to the story of Christ\u2019s life, death and resurrection. It all comes down to this:\u00a0Follow me.<\/em><\/p>\n In the lectionary cycle, this reading is the last of the post-resurrection accounts we will hear in the Sunday gospels this Easter season\u2014and those two words from Jesus are addressed not just to Simon Peter, but to us all.<\/p>\n And at this particular moment, they give us a lot to ponder.<\/p>\n