The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to see the action of the Holy Spirit in the movement of the faith of the disciples to build a Church with Jesus as the cornerstone.
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| Keystone |
In the reading from the Book of Acts, Peter and John declare Jesus as the cornerstone before the Council.
* [4:12] In the Roman world of Luke’s day, salvation was often attributed to the emperor who was hailed as “savior” and “god.” Luke, in the words of Peter, denies that deliverance comes through anyone other than Jesus.1
Psalm 118 is a song of Victory in which the cornerstone is mentioned.
* [118:22] The stone the builders rejected: a proverb: what is insignificant to human beings has become great through divine election. The “stone” may originally have meant the foundation stone or capstone of the Temple. The New Testament interpreted the verse as referring to the death and resurrection of Christ (Mt 21:42; Acts 4:11; cf. Is 28:16 and Rom 9:33; 1 Pt 2:7).2
In the Gospel of John, Jesus appears to seven disciples on shore of the Sea of Galilee.
* [21:12] None…dared to ask him: is Jesus’ appearance strange to them? Cf. Lk 24:16; Mk 16:12; Jn 20:14. The disciples do, however, recognize Jesus before the breaking of the bread (opposed to Lk 24:35).3
George Butterfield notes there are two charcoal fires in John’s Gospel. At the first, Peter denies Jesus three times. At the second, Jesus invites Peter to breakfast and directs him three times to care for and tend his flock. It is around a charcoal fire that Jesus does his purifying work on Peter but it is through the fire of the Holy Spirit that the work is done.
If the first reading suggests that we have nothing to offer others, except through the name of Jesus, the Gospel reading makes it clear that this includes ourselves. I cannot forgive me of my denials of Jesus. I cannot fix me. Only Jesus can do this through the power and work of the Holy Spirit. The beautiful thing about it is that he is always willing to bring us mercy and compassion. I deny him three times and then he invites me to breakfast.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,For his mercy endures forever.4
Don Schwager quotes “Resurrected Bodies,” by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"The bodies of the righteous at the resurrection will need neither any fruit to preserve them from dying of disease or the wasting decay of old age nor any bodily nourishment to prevent hunger and thirst. For they will be endowed with such a sure and inviolable gift of immortality that they will not eat because they have to, but only if they want to. Not the power but the necessity of eating and drinking shall be taken away from them... just like our Savior after his resurrection took meat and drink with his disciples, with spiritual but still real flesh, not for the sake of nourishment, but in an exercise of his power." (excerpt from City of God 13.22)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on John 21:1-14 comments this isn’t the only time in the Scriptures that the disciples do not immediately recognize the risen Christ. Outside the empty tomb, Mary Magdalene mistakes Jesus for the gardener until he says her name (John 20:11-18). The two disciples talk to Jesus on the road to Emmaus, but they think he is simply a fellow traveler on the road until he breaks bread (Luke 24:13-35). We don’t know why, but in each of these encounters something about Jesus finally causes his followers to recognize him.
If you’re wrestling with this right now, try to shift your perspective to see how Jesus continues to stand by you. He is with you when a friend reaches out to help you in an unexpected way. He is with you when you feel a sense of peace at Mass or when you find a Scripture verse especially consoling. It is his grace that gives you the strength to serve your family or the courage to share your faith. When you choose to believe that Jesus is loving you in and through all these things, you are choosing to believe that Jesus is standing with you.6
Friar Jude Winkler cites the role of the Holy Spirit in the proclamation of the kerygma by Peter and John. Early Christians moved from fulfillment of the promises of Yahweh to understanding Jesus as the cornerstone of a Church. Friar Jude reminds us of the symbol of 153 fish to the disciples who would become fishers of men.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments the Gospel gives our suffering both personal and cosmic meaning by connecting our pain to the pain of others and, finally, by connecting us to the very pain of God. Did you ever think of God as suffering? Most people don’t—but Jesus came to change all of that.
Any form of contemplation is a gradual sinking into this divine fullness where hope lives. Contemplation is living in a unified field that produces in people a deep, largely non-rational, and yet calmly certain hope, which is always a surprise.
A life of inner union, a contemplative life, is practicing for heaven now. God allows us to bring “on earth what is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10) every time we can allow, receive, and forgive the conflicts of the moment. Such acceptance allows us to sit in some degree of contentment—despite all the warring evidence.
God alone, it seems to me, can hold together all the seeming opposites and contradictions of life. In and with God, we can do the same. But we are not the Doer.7
Our journey as disciples of Jesus is filled with hope when we allow the Spirit to inform our actions.
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