Third Sunday of Easter

Today is the third Sunday of Easter. The Lord is risen and the scriptures speak of the work to be done and that work is evangelization. The bringing of the Word of truth, which is Christ, to mankind, the apostles the first evangelists were fishermen. When Jesus first saw Peter and his brother Andrew as well as the two sons of Zebedee, James and John, they were fishing and the Lord said to them, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” The Gospel says, “ they left everything and followed Him.”

Christ and Christianity call for radical departures. The abandoning of that which is familiar and accommodating to seek the unknown which will be made known only through faith, Faith in Him who called us at of darkness.

The first reading from the Acts of the apostle tells of the difficulties and trials that Peter and the apostles endured and faced on a regular basis for preaching and teaching in the name of Jesus. Even so the number converted and baptized was in the thousands. The first three hundred years were a time of persecutions and martyrdoms and growth in the church.

The second reading is from revelation which speaks of the angles and the countless others who surround the throne of the Lamb who was slain. Heaven resounds with the cry of honor and glory for Him who died and rose for us; who endure to the end.

The 21st Chapter of Gospel John is filled with encouragement and hope and a call to action.

Jesus revealed Himself in His resurrection to His disciples for a third time at the Sea of Tiberius, the Sea of Galilee. And we notice that the apostle Thomas, the one who doubted, having regained His faith is with the others. These men who made their living from fishing went out on the sea, spent the night and caught nothing. But, when the unrecognized figure on the shore asked them in the morning if they had caught anything and heard that they hadn’t, He told them what to do. They did as He said and caught 150 fish, so many that their nets were breaking.

Then John recognized Jesus and shouted to Peter who jumped out of his boat half naked. This is evidence of the remarkable things that take place in our lives when we do what Jesus tells us to do, and act with faith and the expectance of success.

Jesus in His resurrection was on the shore fixing breakfast for His disciples, His apostles, His evangelists. There was a fire going, with bread and fish cooking.

In the third chapter of the Book of Exodus in the Old Testament, we see Moses being called by Yahweh to Mt. Horeb, as Moses approaches he saw a bush on fire and which fire is not extinguished. The Lord God is preparing Moses to lead the people, the Israelites out of Slavery in Egypt. And when Moses questions Him who speaks and asks, ‘When I go to the people who will I say sent me?” And Yahweh God says, “tell them “I Am” sent you, for this is my name for all ages, “I am who Am”.’

We recall also that Jesus when discussing with the scribes and Phrarecsies their

Father Abraham. He said that Abraham had seen his day and was glad. The Phrarecsies countered that “You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?” Jesus response was “before Abraham came to be I am”

What we are given to see from this scene on the seashore by the symbols of fire, fish and bread and by the super abundant catch of fish where previously there were none is the everlasting presence of the one true God who is at the same time the servant of the servants of God, or who will become such when they are sent out to preach to all the nations and to baptize. We see the Eucharist in the food and in the person of Christ, in this case food for the journey, viaticum.

Just as there was a large school of fish where earlier there had been none. So 5000 were fed with five loaves and two fish. When we are in union with Jesus we can do the same.

The following scene is that dialogue that takes place between Jesus and Peter. The title of these sections in John is “The Primacy of Peter”. Jesus asks him three times, “Do you love me?” When Peter answers yes, Jesus says,”Feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my lambs.”

As Moses was prepared to deliver the Israelites from physical slavery, Peter is being prepared to deliver the people of the world from the slavery to sin and to make them holy by baptism, the Eucharist, penance, the word of the Gospel and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

These five avenues lead to holiness by means of the Son of god, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, The burning bush that is eternal and inextinguishable.

Jesus said to Nicodemus “Unless a man is born again of water and the Holy Spirit he cannot entering into the kingdom of heaven, Catechism 405. In Jn 3:4 With record to the Eucharist we read, “Amen, Amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you.” Jn 6:54

Today Jesus gives Peter a command to feed my sheep, feed my lambs in Mt. 16:19. We see that Jesus commissioned Peter as His vicar and said “Thou art Peter, rock and upon this rock I will build my church. I give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” And to Peter and the apostle, He gave the power to forgive sins and to retain them, the sacrament of penance, the conveyer and restorer of sanctifying grace.

The word of God in the Gospel is nourishment for soul as we hear in Mt 4:4 “Not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”

Finally, Jesus promised that after He had ascended to the Father, the Holy Spirit would come upon them to give them power and to remind them of the truth. So henceforth they could act in Spirit and in truth without fear. For I am with you all days even unto the consummation of the world.

The work to be done is for One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, evangelization to spread the good news. In this work every one of us has a part to play and often a decision and crucial part, this includes the laity. It is within the family, the fruit of the sacrament of matrimony, that the laity, for the most part, is found. The family is the firm foundation of any rational society. If the family is weakened, to that extent society is weakened. In the urgent work of evangelization, that action to which Christ calls us today it is the family that must be reenergized to live the truth selflessly. To love and project the bodies and souls of the children that are welcomed through the holy vocations of mothers and fathers.

The whole of the Gospel is summed up in the last words of Jesus to Peter this morning, which words are also directed to each of us, those words are “follow me.”