… And he said to Him, "Yes, Lord! You know I love You.

He no longer relies on himself – he does not dare to say simply: "I love".

Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs..." And another time:

Simon Jonin! Do you love me? Peter said to Him, "Yes, Lord! You know that I love You... – Feed My sheep... And for the third time: Simon Jonah! Do you love Me? Peter was saddened that he had asked him for the third time.

Three times I denied Him – three times I heard from Him:

"Do you love Me?" – this is why he was sad.

And he said to Him, "Lord! You know everything; You know that I love You.

Jesus said to him. feed my sheep. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast young, thou didst gird thyself and went whither thou wilt; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you up and lead you whither you will not. (John 21:17-18.)

What does that mean? For two thousand years, people have been racking their brains over this riddle. Is it only the martyrdom of Peter that is foretold in it, as John thinks (21:19)? No, it seems to be something else. If the first half of the prophecy:

I want him to stay until I come,

refers to the eternal fate of John, and the second also refers to the eternal fate of Peter. It seems that the key to the whole riddle is in this one word, which illuminates everything with such a prophetic and terrible light: "other". "The other will lead you where you don't want to." The Lord says the same word about His eternal

Fate:

I have come in the name of my Father, and ye receive me not; and if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. (John 5:43.)

Who this "other" is, Paul knows:

… the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called god (II Thess. 2:3-4),

the "opposite Christ" is the Antichrist. It is he who will lead Peter, and perhaps the entire Church of Peter, "whither" Peter does not want. If so, then here we are talking about some kind of final "apostasy" from Christ of all Christian humanity ("until the apostasy comes," according to the same word of Paul). It seems that the Lord Himself says the same thing at the Last Supper:

Simon! Simon! Behold, Satan asked to sow you as wheat.

But I prayed that thy faith might not fail, and that thou shalt be converted and strengthen thy brethren. (Luke 22:31-32.)

This means: one day, Peter, having conquered his second "apostasy," his "renunciation," just like the first, will again become the "Rock" on which the Church will be built in such a way that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against her" (Matt. 16:18).

XIII

And having said these things, he said to him, "Follow me."