Cycle C - Year II:  

1 May 2022: Third Sunday of Easter 

(Liturgical Color: White)

Readings:

First Reading:        Acts 5:27-32, 40-41

Second Reading:  Revelation 5:11-14

Gospel:  Please Read  John 21:1-19

To catch people for the Lord!

The Resurrection of our Lord has transformed us to become "Easter people" redeemed from our sins by the passion, death and victory of Jesus. The Lord stays some more time with His disciples to focus on building His Church. For it will be His Church, through the workings of the Holy Spirit, that will strengthen and lead us back to God when we fall back to sin.

The Gospel narrative on the third Sunday of Easter is about Peter and his companions who went fishing by the Lake of Tiberias. They worked all night but caught nothing. Then by dawn Jesus appears to them, and this is the third time after His resurrection. But the disciples did not recognize the risen Lord.

As in the miracle of the big catch of fish in Lake Gennesaret, Jesus again performed a miracle of a big catch of fish. Then the disciples realized it was the risen Christ with them.

When they were at shore, Jesus challenged Peter to abandon his work as fisherman for the greater task of catching people and shepherding God's people, the Church.

At the end of the Gospel narrative, there was a conversation between Jesus and Peter, which is slightly uncomfortable on Peter's part. Because Jesus asks Peter "Do you love me" not once but three times, and so Peter was distressed. Then, Jesus told Peter "Follow me."

Now, Jesus addresses "Follow me" specifically to Peter in this passage.  This happens after the risen Christ asked Peter to profess his devotion three times -- perhaps a reversal of the three times that Peter betrayed Jesus during the Passion.  And all three times, Jesus instructs Peter to care for His flock. On the third time, Jesus tells Peter that his life is no longer his own. The Holy Spirit will lead him "where you do not want to go" and that Peter's mission will always be to "follow me" (which means Jesus) in humility. This time, with the help of Christ, Peter will remain faithful to that mission entrusted to him by the risen Christ until Peter's death.     

So the Lord also asks us today "Do we love Him?" and calls each one of us to follow Him.   Loving our risen Lord means embracing our own mission of proclaiming God's kingdom on earth and becoming witnesses of Jesus' Resurrection and God's love by caring for others. Loving Jesus means trusting our Lord completely with our hearts and life for the sake of His kingdom.

"Follow me" is our Easter invitation from the risen Lord to cast our nets at the other side of the boat where an abundance of fish awaits us, and then take care of the Lord's flock entrusted to our mission and shepherding.

We need not worry. The nets will not tear. The Church will endure. And so those who follow the Apostles and succeed them will ensure that the Church can embrace all those called to see for themselves the truth and beauty of the Word of God. So that when they do, we must find a way to welcome them with joy and hospitality. We can only do this when we recognize Christ as the Master who is at the center of our feast, just as the Apostles did on the Sea of Galilee.

A blessed Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!