The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invites contemplation of the situations where the message of Jesus is rejected and consideration of our faithfulness to His mission.
The corner and the key stone
The reading from the Acts of the Apostles describes the questioning of Peter and John before the Council.
* [4:11] Early Christianity applied this citation from Ps 118:22 to Jesus; cf. Mk 12:10; 1 Pt 2:7.* [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.
* [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.
* [21:11] The exact number 153 is probably meant to have a symbolic meaning in relation to the apostles’ universal mission; Jerome claims that Greek zoologists catalogued 153 species of fish. Or 153 is the sum of the numbers from 1 to 17. Others invoke Ez 47:10.3
Suzanne Braddock comments that the gospel scene vividly portrays many truths hidden within a dramatic, almost comedic post-resurrection story.
Not only does Jesus direct the disciples to their abundant catch, he calmly feeds them as he has so often before his death and resurrection. I see him greeting Peter and the rest with a twinkle in his eye and perhaps a little smile, as he dishes up the fish and bread. Can we follow our hearts to recognize Jesus in the stranger? Does it take love to reveal the truth? Can we hear what he is telling us? Can we trust we will be fed?4
Don Schwager quotes “Resurrected Bodies”, by Saint 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 suggests that even now, just a few days after Easter, the excitement may have worn off, leaving us with the sense that everything has returned to the ho-hum way it was before Ash Wednesday.
It’s okay to feel that way every now and then. After all, it’s just a feeling. It’s not as if Jesus has changed his mind and decided to stop loving you or caring for you. You could be having a bad day. Questions at home or at work may be weighing on you. Or maybe you just didn’t get enough sleep the night before. Whatever the case, you can still trust that Jesus is with you and that he is looking out for you. When you find yourself feeling discouraged like this, take a few moments to reflect on why Peter jumped out of that boat. He had waited long enough; he couldn’t wait even a few more minutes to be next to the Lord! Similarly, know that a moment of recognition is in your future as well, a moment when the clouds clear and you sense his presence once again. Until that day, stay watchful in prayer, confident in his love, and ready to jump into the sea as soon as you spot him. “Lord, help me to hold fast to you in faith.”6
Friar Jude Winkler comments on the kerygma preached by Peter to the Council. The rock at Golgotha was not guarried because of natural flaws that supported the base of the cross. Friar Jude reminds us of how the mission aspect of Eucharist is connected to the 153 fish caught in the Gospel.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM is convinced that the Gospel offers us a holistic understanding of salvation. If we understand the resurrection as a universal phenomenon, we can see this idea everywhere in Pauline passages, expressed in different ways… this all emerges from Jesus’s major metaphor of the “Reign of God,” a fully collective notion, which many scholars say is just about all that he talks about. Until we start reading the Jesus story through the collective notion that the Christ offers us, Fr Richard honestly thinks we miss much of the core message, and read it all in terms of individual salvation, and individual reward and punishment. Society will remain untouched, leaving Christianity little chance of changing the world. Julian of Norwich was given the gift of seeing in this holistic way.
We are all one in love. . . . When I look at myself as an individual, I see that I am nothing. It is only in unity with my fellow spiritual seekers that I am anything at all. It is this foundation of unity that will save humanity. God is all that is good. God has created all that is made. God loves all that he has created. And so anyone who, in loving God, loves all his fellow creatures [and] loves all that is. All those who are on the spiritual path contain the whole of creation, and the Creator. That is because God is inside us, and inside God is everything. And so whoever loves God loves all that is. [1]7
Our experience of rejection is a nudge to seek the guidance of the Spirit in the form our Eucharistic mission as fishers of people should take.
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