Third Sunday of Easter (C); May 5, 2019

Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41   Ps 30   Rv 5:11-14   Jn 21:1-19

Deacon Jim McFadden

 

            We continue to read from the wonderfully rich chapters of John which deal with the Resurrection appearances of Jesus. In the 21^st chapter we have an account of Jesus appearing to the disciples at the Sea of Galilee.   Here we have Jesus creating anew, bringing forth new life, animating, giving life back to his Church. What we’re witnessing is that the Risen Christ transforms everything!

What’s noteworthy about this narrative is that it is situated within the context of the everyday life of the disciples. Following the Death and Resurrection of Christ, they return to Galilee from Jerusalem and they go about their business of fishing again.

Does this happen to us? We can have a very powerful religious experience whether it be the joyous experience of the Easter liturgy, a retreat, a sermon that may have inspired you, or an encounter with a very saintly person and you resolve to live your life in a new way. You’re on fire with the Spirit, but after a while the drumbeat of your mundane daily lives can lessen your fervor.   You return to your ordinary life and your old habits.   In some ways, I think that’s what’s being described here

Peter says, “I am going fishing” and the others say that they will join him. It seems like business as usual. Has anything really changed?   They go out at night and they catch nothing. This account just seems so dreary and flat. The fervor’s gone; the spirit’s gone. Where’s the life? Where’s the animation that characterized them in Jerusalem? Sometimes our life just seems boring as we go through the motions of being human.

Even though everything seemed finished—been there, done that—Jesus “seeks” his disciples once more. This time he meets them at the lake, where they had spent the night in their boats catching nothing. Their nets were empty, which harkens back to the first time they met Jesus in which they left everything—their nets, their boats, their family—to follow Jesus. They did so and they were so full of hope. And now, are their lives really different? Yes, they saw him as risen, but then they may have thought: “He went away and left us…It was like a dream.”

Jesus never leaves us. Indeed, he relates to his disciples where they are. He says to those tired, dispirited, disappointed fishermen: “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find something” (Jn 21:6).

The disciples trust Jesus and do what he says; the result is an incredibly abundant catch. At this point, John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, turns to Peter and says, “It is the Lord” (v. 7). Right away, the impetuous Peter swims towards the shore, towards Jesus. Notice the sequence: when Peter hears the exclamation “It is the Lord!”, all the enthusiasm of the Easter experience returns: he is now full of joy and wonder which sharply contrasts with the disappearance of Jesus, the dejection at what had happened on Good Friday, the powerlessness that had accumulated in their hearts as they return to their normal routine.

Here’s the hinge: the presence of the Risen Jesus transforms everything: darkness has become light, futile work no matter how mundane becomes fruitful, ordinary experience becomes hopeful, and the sense of being alone gives way to the certainty that the Risen Jesus is with us now and forever. We’re never alone.

From that time on, those earlier followers of Jesus, who would become fishers of men, will become the community of the Risen Lord. At first glance it might seem that the darkness of evil has the upper hand, especially when we read the evil acts that were perpetuated upon the innocent by those entrusted to their care. As parents, grandparents, as believers in the God who is Love, we are repulsed, heartbroken by what has been done to these innocents. Moreover, our sadness is compounded knowing that the pain and suffering of victims continues into adulthood and the wound will never go away, though it may be healed through the consoling presence of the Risen Jesus.

Despite the presence of evil in our society and just the toil of daily living, we, the Church, the People of God, know with certainty that the now everlasting light of Easter will never be extinguished and shines upon those who follow the Lord Jesus.   As we “move, live, and have our being” in the Risen Christ, the great message of the Resurrection instills in our hearts a profound sense of joy and invincible hope. Why? We experience Jesus as being alive because he is truly Risen!

Today, too, despite the darkness, the slog of human existence, the Church’s Easter message resounds throughout the world. As we experience the Risen Christ, joy and hope flow in our hearts. How could it not, when we dwell in Jesus who is Love incarnate? So, in our faces, in our gestures, in our words, in our deeds we give witness to the Good News of Jesus’ Resurrection.

By virtue of our baptism when we were anointed as priest, prophet, and king we are called to communicate this message of Resurrection to those we meet, especially those who are suffering, who are alone, to those who find themselves in precarious situations, to the sick, infirmed, homebound; to those incarcerated in prison; to the refugees, to the marginalized.

Let us be a conduit for the light of the Risen Christ. Let us be an enthusiastic witness that he is alive! Let us be a sign of his powerful mercy, which reaches everyone and transforms everything. Amen.