Today's Gospel reading for Mass included Jesus' asking Peter three times if Peter loved him, and Peter's three affirmations that he did. It's in John 21:15-19. Please go read that now. I'll wait.
The New Testament was written in Greek. Greek has more than one word that we translate as "love". If you're not familiar with that idea, and you're reading in English, you can easily miss what's going on in this passage. Thanks to Fr. Ed O'Melia at St. Mary's for this insight.
One of the words for love is "Phileos". This is brotherly love, or "buddy" love. It's the root of the name of the city of Philadelphia.
A second word is "eros". We hear that and hear the root of "erotic" and think, "Sex!" And, romance and sex are part - but only part - of what Eros is about. Eros is the love that seeks its own perfection, its own completion, its own perpetuation. I think you can see where the sexual connotations have come from. When the Greek philosophers - most famously in Plato's Symposium - write about love, it's almost always Eros.
Agape is the third term. Where Eros seeks the perfection of the self, Agape seeks the good and the perfection of the other. Eros shows frequently in philosophy. Mention of Agape is rare in philosophical writing, but the New Testament is loaded with it. "Greater Agape has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." 1 Cor. 13 - the love chapter - is all about Agape.
In the passage from John, Jesus asks Peter three times if Peter loves him. But the sequence of questions and answers is:
Jesus: "Peter, do you Agape me?"
Peter: "Yes, Lord, I Phileos you." I can't do that Agape thing. I'm just not there. I want to be your friend, your buddy.
The second round. Jesus: "Peter, do you Agape me?"
Peter: "Yes, Lord. You know I Phileos you." Peter again takes Jesus' question down a notch. He's not ready for the larger commitment Jesus seeks.
In the third round, Jesus comes down that notch: "Peter, do you Phileos me?" Is that really the best you can do just now? And you can maybe understand Peter's hurt in his answer: "You know, Lord, that I Phileos you."
What looks like a three-time affirmation to make up for Peter's three-time denial becomes something more. It becomes a beautiful story of Jesus' willingness to accept Peter where Peter was. Jesus doesn't send Peter packing. "Feed my sheep" - Jesus accepts Peter and will make use of Peter just as Peter is. Just like he does for us. But, he's not going to just leave Peter as he is. The following passage foretells Peter's conversion, from Phileos to Agape.
I hope I find my way on that path. And, I hope we may seek it together.
Thanks for hanging with me for a few!
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This is insightful. I am always talking about stuff like this when I teach the Bible as literature in my Brit. Lit. survey course. I can't get away with religious teaching in a state school. I love to see students come to that realization that translations are just as much an act of interpretation as any kind of literary analysis.
ReplyDeleteWilliam, thanks for your comment. Your statement about translation is spot on. Translation is an art, not a science.To use an example, I've read Dante's Inferno. Dante wrote a subtle, elegant Italian, but I can't read Italian and any translation of Dante, no matter how good, loses something of the grace of the original. Among French writers I love Camus (I have a bit of the French Existentialist in me), but Proust leaves me cold. If I could read Proust in French, maybe my reaction to him would be different.
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