April 10, 2016

Third Sunday of Easter Acts 5: 27-32, 40-41; Revelation 5: 11-14; John 21: 1-19 Some amazing quotes today bombard us in the readings: “We must obey God rather than men.” and “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?….Simon son of John do you love Me?…Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” So I ask…am I obeying God? Do I want to specify this statement…and ask, ‘In what way?…Or, in what sense do you mean this? Just plain and simple, Am I obeying God….in what He taught…In the Ten Commandments …In Jesus’ threefold Law of Love’…am I obeying God in terms of loving…in terms of forgiving…in terms of compassion…in terms of caring for those in need in my life…in terms of justice…in terms of mercy…in terms that say that each and everyone is my brother and sister…in terms that we are all one in God…am I obeying God? And Jesus is asking me…do I love Him? Do I love the Father…do I love the Spirit…Do I pray…do I take time to be with the Lord…do I take time to be thankful each day…do people see God’s love in me or some sort of degree of my selfish love? These are very blunt words for each of us today …let’s go deeper into the readings…How do I know I am obeying God…? Or am I obeying myself? Am I doing what I think is best or am I following what Jesus said is best? Am I realizing that I have been called for a mission of love and witnessing? Are people seeing me in Jesus or Jesus in me? When confronted with my faults or inadequacies or my unique selfishness do I cover it by saying, ‘that’s just the way that I am…’ Don’t these somehow deny the possibility of God’s grace entering and changing me to be ‘more Jesus’? The gospel occurs after the Resurrection of Jesus. Did you notice a unique fact that so easily changes the scene but we don’t even notice it, let alone think about it? The fact is that many of the apostles are back home in Galilee. We might say, ‘So what!’ What does this mean…they are back home, no doubt with their families and they are working at their former occupations! This isn’t just a day outing of relaxing and fishing…they are back at the Sea of Galilee, the Sea of Tiberius where they always worked. Not all of the twelve are there…only seven and they are doing a routine day of work at their old jobs as if nothing had happened. They had been living in Jerusalem. They had been at the Last Supper. They had seen the resurrected Jesus. Why were they back home? Why didn’t they stay in Jerusalem and continue the preaching ministry of Jesus? Why did it seem just like another nonchalant day as if nothing life changing had happened to them? I can’t answer that…biblical scholars don’t seem sure of the answer for that. In the previous chapter, all were gathered together in the Last Supper room and Jesus appears and Thomas is there. After being told by Jesus, ‘Put you fingers here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing.” Thomas gives his inspiring declaration of faith, “My Lord and my God!” The Scripture account then gives a conclusion saying “Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in His name.” And immediately follows an Epilogue: The Resurrection Appearance in Galilee and John starts by saying, “After this, Jesus revealed Himself again to His disciples at the Sea of Tiberius.” And the seven went fishing and they saw someone on shore and did not recognize that it was Jesus. After not catching anything, Jesus told them to try on the other side of the boat and they brought in 153 large fish. Scholars tell us that 153 has a symbolic meaning as to the apostles universal mission to bring Jesus to all peoples…since that was the number of known species of fish at that time. But still why did they come to Galilee and start working again? What was lacking? SOMEHOW it comes back to Jesus’ dialogue with Peter….And it has important significance to each one of us. Msgr. Eugene Lauer was the supervisor of the Sabbatical programs for priests at Notre Dame. I was blessed to be on this program in 1992. He wrote a book, Sunday Morning Insights commenting on the Gospels for Cycle A, B,C. This is what he concludes today about this passage, “Jesus’ conversation with Peter at the end of the gospel suggests an interesting answer to this question (What was lacking). What does Jesus ask Peter three times? ‘Do you love Me?’ In some way the apostles’ love for Jesus must have been shaky, immature. It was not sufficient, even after all His healing and miracles and resurrection to inspire them to plunge into the risky task of proclaiming redemption to the world Perhaps this is what we are to learn from the gospel this Sunday. Without love, the Spirit does not come. Before all gifts, before all miracles, before all signs and wonders, comes love. Without it, as Paul observed, we are nothing at all. After the assurance of their love for Him by Peter, Jesus can conclude the gospel story this Sunday with a phrase that He had used before but now can say with far more certain meaning: ‘Come, follow me.’ This time they followed Him to death because they understood the meaning of love.” So it comes down to this…do I know the meaning of love? Am I caught up in my own world which is centered on myself and not on God? Am I living the love of Jesus? What about Jesus’ triple response to Peter? Andrew Murray, a pastor and prolific writer in South Africa during the nineteenth century, pondered the meaning of these three words: “Feed My Sheep” and said, “To FEED is to give to others what will help them grow. Every Christian must consider how to help others to grow: How can we explain Jesus’ words so they might understand? How can we nurture a desire in them to turn to God? The word MY means that these sheep belong to Jesus. The work we do in caring for the master’s sheep involves hard work and initiative. But we must always remember that we nurture them for the Lord, not for the fulfillment of our own wishes or desires They belong to Him. And what are SHEEP? Sheep depend upon their shepherds to create an environment that is safe, healthy, and good for their growth. A precious lot are weak and in constant need of care In a similar way, all Christians see in one way or another sheep in need of care. We have a responsibility to care for them and feed them with the food Jesus gives.” Sacred Space 2016 finishes our reflection with this prayer: “Jesus, You meet me at the water’s edge of my ordinary life. You accept me lovingly, You encourage me, You invite me to abundance. Nourished by the food of Your word, warmed by the fire of Your unfailing love, may I in turn nourish, heal, and love those I meet today.”