QUO VADIS?

 A REFLECTION FOR THE 4TH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER

In today’s Gospel, our Lord asks his apostles a question.  It’s an odd question, on the face of it—partly because he already knows the answer of course, but in this case, the question is why they aren’t asking him a question.   He knows they’re upset and that they have a big question on their minds, but they’re afraid to ask.  They’re afraid, not so much of asking, but rather of the answer he’s going to give them.  And our Lord wants to reassure them that his answer should strike not fear into their hearts, but serenity.

The question they want to ask but don’t dare to, is this: “Whither goest thou?  Where are you going?  Our Lord lets them know exactly where he’s going (back to his Father in heaven) and more importantly, why he’s leaving them (so he can send the Holy Spirit to strengthen and confirm them in their faith).

St. Peter learns his lesson.  Never again will he fear to ask our Lord a question.  But we can’t say that never again will he fear.  Towards the end of his life, he arrived at the capital of the Roman Empire, the great city of Rome.  Here he founded the Church of Rome, becoming the first Bishop of that city, and thus the first Pope.  But these were bad times.  The Roman Emperor Nero was a cruel man who hated the Christians.  He feared this new movement that was sweeping through his empire, imagining that it threatened his hold on the imperial power.  Christians were being vigorously and most cruelly persecuted, and the lions of the Colosseum never went hungry.

Naturally, Nero’s chief target was the leader of this Christian minority, St. Peter.  His soldiers were fast closing in on the apostle, and our first Pope knew his days were limited.  And so he was afraid, and fled the city of Rome.  As he resolutely trudged along the Appian Way out of the city into the countryside he met a man walking in the opposite direction.  As the man came closer, St. Peter recognized him.  It was our blessed Lord himself.  Why, he wondered, was Jesus walking towards Rome?  And he remembered the lesson he had learned in today’s Gospel, the reluctance to ask the question that needed to be asked.  It was the same question this time, and St. Peter wasn’t going to fail our Lord again.  So he asked it: Domine, quo vadis?  “O Lord, whither goest thou?”  And our Lord answered him: “I am going to Rome to be crucified again.”  This famous response of Our Lord struck St. Peter so hard that he immediately turned round and walked back to Rome where he, and not his beloved Saviour, would be martyred, insisting to his executioners that he should be crucified upside down to make reparation for his lack of courage.

Whatever we might imagine our Lord is going to tell us, we should never fear to ask him our questions.  He will never tell us what we must do, but he will inspire us to make our own choices wisely.  If we want the graces to follow Christ wheresoever he wants us to go, we must simply ask him where that place is, and then do everything possible to get there.  It might be a place of joy and peace, or it might be our very own Calvary.  That should not matter to us, so long as we can prevent our Lord from suffering any more for the sins we have committed against him.