What Concern Is It of Yours?

"What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours? You follow me." // John 21:22

The weather had been sweltering for days. I was sweating, holding my one-year-old son as he squirmed and squawked. Putting him down was not an option—he was a runner. But this big, old church didn’t have air conditioning and I was panic-level hot. I had long since given up trying to pray during this Mass. This was a survival mission.

And then I looked up and saw her: a beautiful young woman in a barely-there dress. The judgment bubbled over before I had a chance to squash it: Who would wear a dress like that in public in the daytime, much less to Mass? I felt every uncomfortably squishy and overheated part of my own motherly body. 

It is important to dress appropriately for Mass, but it is not everything. So many times we jump to judge before we have the full story. Who knows what hurdles each soul in the church had to clear in order to be there? 

In today’s Gospel (see John 21:20-25), Saint Peter has just been forgiven by Jesus for denying Him three times the night before the crucifixion. He turns and sees the disciple “whom Jesus loved,” that is, Saint John the Evangelist. Jesus tells Peter to keep his eyes on his own work, and then He gently reminds Peter to follow Him, leaving everyone else to Him.

We are only in control of our own actions, our own faithfulness. What if instead of judging someone based on their appearance or behavior, we committed to loving radically, welcoming all who approach the altar with open arms and hearts? What if we treated each brother and sister in the way we want to be treated on our worst, most humiliating day? What if we just kept our eyes on Jesus and our arms open to each other? What a beautiful Church that would be.