Jesus, Peter and the Meaning of ‘Love’

Now this is a beautiful and enlightening homily and challenging in so many ways. Aside from the challenge to expand our loving capacities beyond philia toward agape, there is an implicit pastoral approach that Jesus exemplifies in affirming Peter’s philia and exhorting him to expand his philia toward agape. If today when we, the Church, approach all the contentious issues that seem to plague the Body of Christ by using the approach that Jesus exemplified toward Peter, perhaps these issues wouldn’t be such contentious or fractious issues but rather mutual challenges to work through on the journey toward a longed for universal posture of agape… Perhaps?