Reading of the holy Gospel according to Saint John 21:1-19
After this, Jesus manifested himself again to the disciples on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias. He manifested himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas, called the Twin, Nathanael, the one from Cana of Galilee, those from Zebedee and two other of his disciples were together. Simon Peter tells them: “I’m going to fish.” They answer him: “We also go with you.” They went and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. When it was dawn, Jesus was on the shore; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus says to them: “Boys, don’t you have any fish?” They answered: “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net to the right of the boat and you will find it.” So they threw her out, and they could no longer drag her because of the abundance of fish.
The disciple whom Jesus loved then says to Peter: “It is the Lord”, put on his clothes – since he was naked – and jumped into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net with the fish; for they were not far from land, but about two hundred cubits. As soon as they jump to land, they see some embers prepared and a fish on them and bread. Jesus tells them: “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” Simon Peter went up and pulled the net to land, full of large fish: one hundred and fifty-three. And, being a lot of people, the web did not break. Jesus tells them: “Come and eat.”
None of the disciples dared to ask him: “Who are you?”, knowing that it was the Lord. Then Jesus comes, takes the bread and gives it to him; and likewise the fish. This was already the third time that Jesus manifested himself to the disciples after rising from the dead. After having eaten, Jesus says to Simon Peter: “Simon of John, do you love me more than these?” He says to him: “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus says to him: “Feed my lambs.” He says to him a second time: “Simón de Juan, do you love me?” He says to him: “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus says to him: “Feed my sheep.” He says to him for the third time: “Simón de Juan, do you love me?” Pedro was sad when he asked him for the third time: “Do you love me?” and he said to him: “Lord, you know everything; you know I love you.” Jesus tells him: “Feed my sheep. “Truly, truly, I tell you, when you were young, you girded yourself and went where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and lead you where you do not want.” With this he indicated the kind of death with which he was going to glorify God. Saying this, he added: “Follow me.” Lord’s word.
According to the gospel, the disciples were too busy with their daily livelihood to be witnesses of Jesus and bearers of peace. The need to eat was stronger than the obligation to preach the gospel. Like Peter, today we strive for more useful and less committed things, to forget about the commission received from Christ Jesus to preach that HE is alive! The truth is, it is not that Peter did something bad taking care only of fishing and getting what is necessary to live, but he silenced what he knew about Christ, that he really lives!… by keeping silent he is considered dead before the his. Whoever knows that Jesus is alive cannot keep silent about his experience and deal with what is not his primary mission. We will continue living in vain and working at night without fruit, as long as we do not occupy ourselves with proclaiming with our lives what we know about Jesus: that he lives! and that we live to make credible the testimony that Christ is life for the world.
We could actually react at least like Pedro, who did not know how to recognize his lord at first, but when he heard that it was about him, he threw himself into the sea half-naked and without considering the risk that the sea faced, he threw himself to meet his Lord. But how do we know today that the Lord is with us and at our disposal, if we do not attend to the invitation to eat together, receive bread and fish from the hands of Jesus… Convinced of this, no one would dare to ask him, who are you? We also want to recognize him alive, but he urges us to hear today his invitation to share his bread and his body. Therefore, we believe that it will be more difficult for us to accept it the less we receive it in the Eucharist. How will we know that he is alive and that he lives worried about us if we are like those disciples who, although they knew him, insisted on continuing fishing, working at night, without waiting for the next morning to give them the certainty of his presence and success to your eagerness?
Peter’s example should, however, encourage us because he dared to prefer his Lord against all logic, first: answering questions in public about whether he loved him more than others, and second by throwing himself into the sea; precisely because Peter, the disciple who had denied Jesus the most times and promised him his love the most, was not worried about being the best or knowing if he was his best friend… What one must accept, forcefully, like Peter, is that one has such a great love for Jesus to dare to proclaim to the world that Jesus lives!… He will be in charge of choosing us…
Enjoy your Sunday, accompanied by God and your family!
#3rd #Sunday #Easter #cycle