Until relatively recently, today’s Gospel supported a presumption of mine that Peter and John were competitors for Christ’s affections. I mentally pitted John, the Lord’s unmerited favorite—the “beloved disciple”— against Peter, the sincere but flawed “runner-up.” But I always sided with the Petrine underdog, my own beloved confirmation saint.

After digging a little deeper, however, I discovered that two saintly interpreters of Sacred Scripture saw things very differently than I.

In his commentary on John’s Gospel, St. Augustine holds up Peter and John as exemplars of two complementary—rather than competitive—modes of Christian living: the active life (virtuously bearing the evils of this world) and the contemplative life (virtuously waiting for the fullness of our future life in Christ), respectively.

St. John Chrysostom preached that, far from being competitors, Peter and John were close friends, as seen in their constant companionship throughout the Gospels and their powerful deeds together after the resurrection (Acts 3-4). According to Chrysostom, “Peter greatly loved John.” Peter’s question to Christ in today’s Gospel springs from his desire for John to share in Peter’s great ministry.

Lo and behold, I had been projecting my own jealousy of the Beloved Disciple and insecurities about my relationship with God onto Peter and John. Enlightened by Augustine and Chrysostom, I no longer see John as the “favorite”; instead, he’s now a friend who can show me how I, too, am loved by the Lord. What a breath of spiritual fresh air!

So how about you? Is there someone in your life—saintly or otherwise—whom you see as your competitor? Perhaps you could look for a second opinion or, even better, ask Jesus himself what he thinks. And who knows, the Lord might help you see your “enemy” from a fresh perspective.