Friday of Octave of Easter, April 13, 2007

Scripture: Acts 4:1-12. Psalm 118:1-4,22-27. John 21:1-14. Lectionary # 265

For me, John's Gospel is the most compelling and fascinating. I am
attracted by the great theme of faith in Jesus in the first half of his
Gospel and then the great gift of total holy and wholesome love (agape) in
the second part. The other Gospels do not have such a constant thread of
these two themes. In John they jump out at me on every page. Today we
have the extra chapter appended to John's original concluding chapter
twenty. This gives us another perspective on the Resurrection and returns
to a tradition found in Mark and Matthew who follows Mark's writing so
closely. The appearance takes place in Galilee on the shores of lake
Tiberias or Genessareth. It is the greatest of fish stories easily
surpassing Ernest Hemmingway's, "The Old Man and the Sea." In John's
Gospel both Jerusalem and Galilee are featured in the resurrection
experiences of the disciples. I see in this the universalism of John
bringing the Paschal Mysteries to everyone represented by the North
homeland of Jesus and the south representing the sacred and holy city Zion
or Jerusalem where the Church is born. The Resurrection is the path to
freedom for us Christians just as the Book of Exodus and its miraculous
event is the way to the Promised Land for the Israelites. We all need
these events as foundation for our faiths; they are food for our journey
through this life and keys to open the door of the next life. This new
birth of Jesus is our hope. It started with his birth from the virgin (John
1:13-14) and through his resurrection there is a new birth into eternal
life. In reflecting upon what St. Cyril of Jerusalem says in one of his
baptismal homilies, I found this a good commentary on what I am trying to
say: "We share in Jesus's sufferings symbolically and gain salvation in
reality." And what about the miraculous catch of fish--153 large fish
which did not rupture the fishing net? And why seven disciples in the boat
and among them the Beloved Disciple? There are as many exegetical
opinions on this as there are 153 fish plus the seven disciples, so to add
another one--how about this. The seven in the boat are the foundational
persons who will bring the Paschal Mysteries to many communities; the boat
is normally a traditional symbol for the Church. And now the whopper! The
153 fish were the number the zoologists gave at that time for the variety
of fish they knew about. St. Jerome is the one who mentions this (PL,
25,474). Thus despite the great number of people coming into the net of
Christianity all were caught. And finally, I read this on a Church sign a
few years ago, "You catch 'em, we'll clean them." Amen.