Do You Love Me?

Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved him.  Wouldn't once have been enough?  St. John Chrysostom, one of the revered Fathers of the Church, wrote that "Three confessions are made to answer to the three denials; that the tongue might show as much love as it had fear, and life gained draw out the voice as much as death threatened." (quoted in Magnificat, April, p. 130).  It is a powerful question whose answer, if in the positive, can be life-changing.
A former Rwandan student who had been in the seminary for 9 hears and was on retreat to prepare for ordination was struggling with the options of marriage and a family or the priesthood.  An important question but troubling, so close to ordination. Meditating on this passage, he heard the question addressed to him, and when he said yes, he was flooded with peace, and went ahead to receive the sacrament, using the question, "Do you love me?" on his ordination card and as his mantra for life.  He's coming up on his ninth anniversary as a priest, is happy and very effective as a pastor of a large parish in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.  It was that question that saved his vocation.
If we were asked, what would be our answer?   What implications would it have on our lives? In reality, it's not "if" but "We are" ...We are asked that question every day, many times a day. How do we answer?
Bro. Rene