CHESAPEAKE, VA. (Catholic Online) - One of the Gospel texts offered for the Third Sunday of Easter contains this extraordinary encounter between the Risen Jesus and Peter:

"When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" Simon Peter answered him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs." He then said to Simon Peter a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Simon Peter answered him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Tend my sheep."

"Jesus said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was distressed that Jesus had said to him a third time, "Do you love me?" and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. 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." He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had said this, he said to him, follow me." (John 21)

As the years have unfolded this encounter between Peter and the Lord has taken on so much meaning for me. How do we respond to the inevitable struggle, failure, disappointment and difficulties in  life? How do we recover when we have fallen?

There are some who insist that obstacles, struggle and pain are opposition from the enemy of our souls, the devil. Well, evil is real and, because we are joined to the Lord through our Baptism, we do encounter attacks as we participate in the spiritual warfare that is arrayed against His loving plan.

Yet, the truth is that difficulties and struggle are more often than not simply a part of the human experience. They are rooted in the rupture in the order of the world that was caused by our individual and corporate separation from God resulting from sin.

There are others whom I have referred to in the past as "friends of Job." Like the "friends" of that great figure of the Old Testament, they blame difficulties and struggle on the behavior of the one who is experiencing them, accusing him or her of not "having faith" or not doing the right thing.

These folks speak as though they have God figured out, as though He were some kind of puzzle to be solved. They present the Christian faith as though it were a formula to be followed rather than a gift and mystery to be received. They minimize the Christian vocation as a call to some form of "success", rather than a rugged road to be walked in the footsteps of a Savior whose greatest act of Love was deemed by most who witnessed it to be a complete failure.

Let's be honest. Life is often difficult, even when you are praying, being as faithful as you can be, cooperating with grace and really believing in the Lord and all that he teaches through His Church. Pain, failure, opposition, hardship, struggle, disappointment all just seem to be a part of the program.

In fact, the great saints of old, such as St. Paul, grew so accustomed to difficulties he began to "boast" of them, writing to the Church at Corinth. "I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me. Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corinthians 12:9, 10)

The question that we should ask ourselves when we face struggle, difficulty, failure, disappointment and the frequent pain of real life is how will we respond to the invitation that they offer to us? Every difficulty, struggle and experience of opposition or pain is an invitation to exercise our freedom, informed by our faith, to truly believe in and embrace the loving plan of God.

To the man or woman who is sincerely committed to following the Lord, embracing these experiences in the surrender of authentic discipleship paves the path to holiness, forms the raw material for continued conversion and equips him/her more fully for the work of the Gospel.

This Third Sunday of Easter we should reflect on this last Chapter of St. John. John's is the "theological" gospel. Probably the last to be written, it reveals the mature reflections of the early Church concerning the deepest meaning of the Incarnation, life, death, resurrection and teaching of Jesus Christ the Messiah.

In the last chapter of his beautiful Gospel, the "beloved disciple" John records the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples in great detail. He focuses on its effect upon the forlorn leader of the early band of disciples, Peter. This Peter is the one who, as the Master Himself prophesied, had denied the Lord during the final hours. Now, he is invited to respond to the gaze of Love and ...