John 21:1 - 19
Our gospel reading tells us that this is the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples. We will hear about the second time, according to John, this Sunday, when Jesus appears to the apostles along with Thomas, who missed the first time eight days before. The first time of course, was Easter Sunday -- but before he appeared to them on Easter Sunday, he appeared to Mary Magdalene.
It’s too bad we hear John’s account in fragments and not even in order. John is telling us something important if we listen. Consider the apostles in this particular story. Why are they in Galilee? It’s not clear from John’s gospel. We hear in the gospel of Matthew that Jesus told the women to tell his brothers, the apostles, to go to Galilee, where they would see him. We don’t see that in John; the first and second appearances seem to take place in Jerusalem, both times in a locked room; and then we are whisked off to Galilee. Geographically, it would take four days to walk that distance. You have to wonder what was going on.
There is a hint, perhaps in that Peter tells the others that he is going fishing. The others, at least some of whom are also fishermen, volunteer to come with him. We can imagine what might be going on. Maybe the apostles left Jerusalem because they feared for their lives if they hung around, and went back to familiar territory. And perhaps they had run out of funds and prudence dictated that they make a little money. But they had seen the Lord twice, and from John’s gospel we don’t see any consequences. He doesn’t commission them, he doesn’t tell them what to do next -- it’s all a blank. And in the context of the earth shattering miracle they just witnessed, they return to their ordinary lives, their comfortable surroundings.
And were we to read further in chapter 21 of John’s gospel, we finally get around to the actual commissioning, when he tells Peter, in the presence of the others, to feed his lambs and tend to his sheep.
During the Easter season, we see proclaimed everywhere including the daily newspaper, the words, “He is risen”. Father Richard Vera, who wrote a wonderful book called “The word made flesh” points out that once God took on human flesh, once God became incarnate, he did not discard that body after he ascended into heaven. He is still with us, still incarnate, still around to be discovered. You and I are like the apostles. We believe, on faith, that Jesus truly died and truly rose again. We believe that somehow this set of facts changed everything, making it possible for us to live good lives and participate in the sacraments and to eventually find our way to heaven, to the eternal presence of God, to be finally filled up with the only thing that can satisfy us forever -- God himself. But like the apostles, we need to eat, we need to work, we need to live our lives.
But like the apostles, we have to bear in mind that he is still with us, and it’s important for you and I to be tuned in enough to see him. Peter and the other disciples notice the man on the seashore who asks them to cast the net on the other side of the boat. That certainly resembles the miracle recorded in Luke, after which Peter is called to become a fisher of men. But it isn’t Peter who recognizes Jesus, it’s the disciple Jesus loved -- that’s you, that’s me. And the disciple recognizes Jesus because he is doing what he did before. And that’s how we are to recognize Jesus. Wherever his work is being done, wherever his word is being preached, he’s there, and we can recognize him with the eyes of faith. He is truly risen -- present tense. He is still God in the flesh. And if we keep alert and indeed if we also do the things Jesus did, he will be incarnate in us and we will see him all the better.
I think that’s what John may be showing us; if we are sons and daughters of the Father, and if we are doing the work given to us with devotion and attention, we’ll meet Jesus right here in this life, and over time his presence will become more and more clear so that at the end of our lives we can say with Saint Stephen, “I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God”
