Third Sunday of Easter

Homily Video

Third Sunday of Easter Homily Transcript

>>These are beautiful readings, beautiful gospel scene. See the transformation of Peter and the Apostles as well as John. John is giving our second reading. Peter is on display in our first reading – Acts of the Apostles. Remember Peter, the one who denied Christ before the Sanhedrin and before the Jews and the leaders? Now in Acts of the Apostles, he’s standing up and he’s proclaiming Christ. He’s saying, “This is the one, this is the Messiah, the one whom you crucified.” And then the boat seen on the sea of Tiberius. After the resurrection. It’s really interesting to compare this scene, them fishing with the very beginning of the gospel when Jesus first calls Peter, Andrew, James and John. So, let’s compare the two here and we see the transformation,  First; Peter, Andrew, James, and John after the Resurrection and a few others, Thomas and Nathaniel, we hear they’re all on one boat. They’ve been united. Remember initially that first call on the same seashore, they’re in two different boats. Peter and Andrew are in their boat. James and John are in their separate boat, their father – Zebedee’s boat. But now they’re united. They’re together. Peter initially, after he realizes at that first call that the miraculous catch of fish is due to Jesus, recalls what Peter says that Jesus says, “Depart from me, Lord, from a sinful man.” He realizes it’s God. He’s not worthy to be in God’s presence. He wants Jesus to leave him. And Jesus says to him, “No, come after me. I will make you a fisher of men.” So, Peter wanted to leave that first time. What does he do this time when he realizes it’s the Lord? He doesn’t want to leave Jesus. He actually wants to get close to Jesus. Jesus standing on the seashore.  They’re on the boat. Peter jumps in the water to try to swim after the Lord. It’s kind of a funny scene. That’s how desperate Peter is to get back to union with the Lord. Not depart from me, but come near me. And also when Jesus says, “Come have breakfast.” Here after the resurrection, it’s a similar come follow me. When Jesus says the word come, It’s a relationship. It’s an invitation for us to be in union with God. Think of like, our time in prayer. When Jesus says, “Go out.” So he’ll say, “I’ll make you a fisher of man.” And then later on in this gospel, after the resurrection, he says, “Go feed my lambs.” It’s the second part of our spiritual lives are called to not just be in relationship with the Lord, but to go out and proclaim the good news. Of course, the 153 large fish are symbolic of all the nations of the world. There is 153 known nationalities at that time. So, Peter has indeed caught, he’s caught the world. And remember the nets initially were about to tear. Now, after the resurrection, the nets don’t tear. So, Peter is given the grace to rally in all the nations of the world, to bring them into relationship with Jesus Christ and into the union with the church. He’ll be given the grace to do this. “Feed my sheep, feed my lambs, feed my sheep,” with Peter, is told by Jesus in response to his three-fold denial. “I do not know him. I do not know him. I do not know him.” So friends, I love, every time we have Peter in the Gospels, it’s worth staying with it, praying with it, identifying ourselves as Peter. There’s been times in our life we’ve denied the Lord. There’ve been times, and we’ve wanted the Lord to depart from us because we’re sinful. Times when we’ve doubted all these things, but the Resurrection. Jesus comes and He transforms each one of us. He calls us to be His disciples and to be his face to other people. So, Peter eventually will be Christ by bringing people into this Union with God, the Father. And so may we experience likewise the transformation as Peter and John did.  Amen. 

Readings

First Reading:

Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41

Second Reading:

Rv 5:11-14

Gospel:

Jn 21:1-19 or 21:1-14 (48)

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