"Where You Do Not Want To Go"

After Jesus had prepared and served a lakeside breakfast for some of the Eleven to lift their spirits after a fruitless (fishless) night on the Sea of Galilee, he asked Peter three times if he loved him, and upon hearing his affirmative reply, admonished him to "feed his sheep." When Peter staunchly professed his fidelity, (this time he meant it), Jesus said to him: "Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." (Jn 21: 18). Granted this was an indication of what kind of death he was to expect, but we can also read it as a clear message to us, that in loving and thus feeding others, we are always, it seems, called to go where we do not want to, to do something that we do not want to do, or think we are capable of doing. Yet, with the power of love behind us, we find that going where God wants us to go is better than any plan we could have made, and that in handling difficult, what we think are impossible situations, we somehow "have the right words", or "the strength comes from 'nowhere''. It comes from somewhere: from the Holy Spirit. We will celebrate Pentecost on Sunday when the power of the Holy Spirit was unleashed in full force. That same Holy Spirit, that same power is with us. And one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is love. These are the days when we might be asking for the Holy Spirit to unleash the power of love upon us so that we might not fear going "where we do not want to go."
Bro. Rene