Follow Me
Jesus appears once again to some of his disciples. These are men who have returned to their familiar work as fishermen, the trade they knew before they were called to follow him.
Can we imagine a world where their journey ended there, where the trauma of Jesus’ violent execution has shattered their hope, causing them to drift back to their old lives as though nothing had happened? They may have continued denying him, just as Peter did on the night of his arrest, choosing to forget rather than confront the pain of what had unfolded.
But that is not what happens. Jesus is risen, and with him, the newborn Church rises too.
We often think of Judas as the great betrayer, and rightly so. Yet in truth, most of the disciples ran, hid, and even denied knowing Jesus. We, too, have moments of fear and weakness when we turn away from him. But Jesus does not hold our failures against us. In today’s Gospel, he offers Peter a path to reconciliation, a way to restore what was broken by his denial. Just as Peter had denied Jesus three times before the cock crowed, he is now given three opportunities to proclaim his love in response to Jesus's question: “Do you love me?”
"Yes, Lord, you know I love you," he answers, and this must be our answer, too.
Jesus meets the disciples in an ordinary moment of fishing, cooking and eating breakfast, in the midst of their daily work. But he does not leave them there. He recreates the miracle that happened when they first met and calls them back to the mission, and into a life that overcomes death and failure.
Today's Readings: Acts 5:27-32, 40-41 Psalm 29(30) Apocalypse 5:11-14 John 21:1-19
Photo Credit: 9Kwan/Adobe Stock
Source: Third Sunday of Easter
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