Vol.5 No.31—DoM Gospel Reflection
3rd Sunday of Easter—April 10, 2016
John 21:1-19
By Sarah Bedia
This is such a rich and beautiful Gospel passage, and one of my very favorites. This is the very last chapter of the last Gospel written, the Gospel of St. John. It is a gospel so profound, so rich with proclamations of “I AM” by Christ, so sublime in its telling of the importance of the Eucharist. This Gospel begins with John’s magnificent prologue about the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, and it ends with our lovely and important passage heard today.
The Lord Jesus is arisen from the dead, and He is very different. No longer constrained by the limits of human flesh, He now enters locked rooms, vanishes from before people’s eyes, and chooses each of His appearances with an important purpose. 7 of His disciples were fishing during the night on the Sea of Galilee and they caught nothing. That scene sounds familiar to us, and it probably did for them also. The man on the shore instructs them to cast out again. In a 6th century homily on this passage, Pope St. Gregory the Great stated that “the presence of Christ on land signifies His stability and peace, while the disciples, laboring on the sea, signify the instability and commotion of the mortal life”. After this new second occurence of a miraculous draught of fishes, it is John who first recognized the Lord, but it is Peter, our beloved, impetuous Peter, who jumps into the sea. In my Bible, the Revised Standard Version, it says he “sprang” into the sea! I don’t know about you, but 100 yards, which is the length of a football field, is a long way to swim. How great must have been his joy at seeing Jesus!
We hear in verse 9 about a charcoal fire, tended by Jesus, with fish and bread. This should remind us of the miraculous multiplication of loaves and fishes to feed the large crowd just before the Bread of Life discourse given earlier in John’s Gospel. In John’s Gospel in particular, details are important. He does not waste any words. The term “charcoal fire” only appears twice in the entire New Testament. The other time was in his 18th chapter, in the court of the High Priest. It was while standing at that charcoal fire, that Peter 3 times denied knowing Jesus.
We are told in verse 11 that Peter hauled the net full of fish ashore, and that there were 153 of them. Again, St. John does not waste words. This curious detail is here for a reason. The 5th century Father and Doctor of the Church, St. Jerome, translated the Scriptures from their original languages into Latin. He believed that, based on the studies of Greek scholars, there were 153 different kinds of fish. Now recall, if you will, that at the first miraculous draught of fishes, Jesus told His disciples that He would make them fishers of men. The detail of 153 fish caught in the net seems to point out to the disciples, who would be fishers of men as apostles, that they are being sent to take the Gospel out to people of every nation and tongue.
Now after having eaten their breakfast, Jesus asked, “Peter, son of John, do you love Me more than these”? In scenes like this one, I like to place myself there, meditating on what Jesus looked like. We know that He had a real body and that He actually ate with His disciples. Take a minute and think about what might the expression on His face have been, the intensity of His gaze, perhaps His hand on Peter’s shoulder. When Peter replies affirmatively, Jesus tells him, “Feed My lambs”. 3 times Jesus asks and 3 times Peter replies “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You”. Now, remember that Peter had proclaimed his never ending fidelity at the Last Supper. What a complete humiliation and grief he must have experienced. All the disciples had been through a horrendous experience having seemingly lost their Master. But Peter had the ultimate humiliation and grief of having publicly denied knowing Christ after having proclaimed his fidelity at the Last Supper. So here we have Peter, next to a charcoal fire, and Jesus creates this incredible scene where Peter can 3 times undo his sin of denial and be sure of the forgiveness of Jesus.
After telling Peter 3 times to feed His lambs and tend His sheep, Jesus gave Peter some very bracing news. He seemed to be choosing His prophetic words very carefully. He doesn’t let Peter know that he in fact will be crucified in about 30 years, that would have been cruel. But there is an ominous tone to being told that Peter would be carried where he does not wish to go. Just after this, Jesus says, “Follow Me”. I looked it up in my Bible concordance, and Jesus used those words 21 times in the Gospels, quite often in conjunction with the phrase “take up your cross”.
What are we to take from this intimate, tender, yet important scene? I think the Lord would have us embrace 2 different aspects:
First, this is yet another affirmation of St. Peter’s authority and the authority of his successors, right down to Pope Francis in 2016. I don’t know how our chief shepherd Jesus could have been more clear about how he wished for His Church to be governed. When there is no central authority who can speak on the Lord’s behalf, there can only be chaos as to what is true and no guard to protect the deposit of the faith. If you have any lingering issues with what the Church teaches, I invite you to consider placing your trust in “Peter”. I can assure you that I have battled with this, most notably in regard for the necessity of a priest for Confession. When I submitted myself to this important teaching, it was as if scales fell from my eyes.
There have surely been some terrible popes, but thank God, the deposit of our faith has always been kept safe. Mercifully, the popes we have been blessed with for at least the last hundred years have been holy, dedicated men. Remember that one of the titles of any reigning pontiff is “servant of the servants of God”. Jesus gave prime example of this when He washed His disciples’ feet as one last important lesson for them as future bishops.
The second lesson I think we need to take from this is Jesus’ willingness to forgive anyone of any sin. We have the example of a man who lived with Jesus for 3 years – ate with Him, slept next to Him, walked untold miles with Him, and had witnessed the Transfiguration and dozens of miracles including the raising of a dead man! He had been told that he was the rock upon which the Church was going to be built and that he was being given the keys to heaven – can you imagine? And yet, he fell and fell very hard.
I think people wonder sometimes why Jesus chose Peter to be the rock, instead of St. John. John was, after all, the beloved disciple. He apparently had the best grasp of the Gospel message and the mystery of the Incarnation, he was entrusted with the great task of sheltering the Blessed Virgin Mary, and he was the one who remained faithful, even to standing amidst the turmoil at the foot of the cross. Why not make him the rock to build the Church on? I think this is why. Peter fell. He fell hard, he fell publicly, and he fell 3 times, not to mention his other impetuous mistakes. I think that the Lord knew very well that His children would fall, would fall hard, would fall publicly and repeatedly. If a more perfect man was established as the leader of the Church, we would have despaired of forgiveness. We would think, “surely there is no forgiveness for me, because my sin is too great”. But because the man upon whom the Church was built was a redeemed sinner who did not despair, but trusted in Jesus’ mercy, we need never fear that we are beyond forgiveness. During this Jubilee Year of Mercy, I invite you to spread this message, above all others: No one is beyond God’s mercy, no one has committed a sin that cannot be forgiven. Isaiah 1:18 says “Come now, let us set things right, says the Lord. Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow; though they be red like crimson they may become white as wool.” Now there’s a message the world needs to hear.
Recommended Reading: A Shepherd Looks At, by W. Phillip Keller; Mass Market Media
http://www.amazon.com/Shepherd-Looks-Psalm-23/dp/0310274419/ref=pd_bxgy_14_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1PN7KS0YQA51G34G462T
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