3rd Sunday of Easter: Jonn 21:1-19
Jesus is interested in our work and lives and knows what we need. We see this when Peter is encouraged to try again and with Jesus’s intervention, he is overcome with surprise.
Not only is Peter’s livelihood assured but Jesus also cares about his nutrition needs “Come and have breakfast” and bring some of what you have caught. We are assured that God is in our midst, involved in our struggles. Deliberately try to leave spaces in your schedule, to allow for interruptions, they may be life’s surprises. Trusting that Jesus knows what we need, allow him to transform and lighten our load and accept his care and attention. The events leading up to Easter Sunday had revealed to Peter how little he trusted himself; afterwards it had become clear how much Jesus trusted and loved him. Even if I know there is much for which I want to ask, I make sure that my prayer has time to listen.
Simon Peter was not the first to recognize Jesus but was the first to respond. I think of the communities of which I am part, considering my place as one who recognizes God’s presence or as one who answers God’s call. I pray for forgiveness for any blindness or hesitancy to which I may contribute.
The Risen Jesus meets his friends as they returned to their life as fishermen. They find him close to them as they go about their work. He makes it bear abundant fruit, precisely when they felt they had laboured a whole night in vain. I ask to be able to encounter the Risen Lord, and that my work will bear abundant fruit through his presence. I stay with the image of Jesus cooking breakfast for his friends. As if he had nothing better to do: couldn’t he go to the Temple to address the crowds, or on Calvary to show them he was alive, so that they believe in him? He chooses to spend time in intimate contact with his friends, preparing them for their mission after his departure, giving them a strong experience of his closeness. Do I give enough time to develop my relationship with Jesus, or am I too busy doing ‘good things’ for him?‘
Come and have breakfast’ How simply and sensitively Jesus deals with us! He knows our needs and our hunger. He knows too that we can only manage the revelations of the divine in small portions. I could do well before my daily breakfast to listen to the Lord speaking my name and saying ‘Come and have breakfast.’
