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With our freedom comes risk... We aren't immune from suffering or excused from the experience of being human simply because of our faith... And the truth remains: the crucified God, as personified in Jesus, revealed that God is always on the side of suffering wherever it is found and God's endgame is resurrection.
― Sarah Bessey, Out of Sorts: Making Peace with an Evolving Faith
(The truth remains . . . how can you claim it this day?)
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ACTS 4:1-12; Ps 118:1-2 AND 4, 22-24, 25-27A
JN 21:1-14
Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias.
He revealed himself in this way.
Together were Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus,
Nathanael from Cana in Galilee,
Zebedee’s sons, and two others of his disciples.
Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.”
They said to him, “We also will come with you.”
So they went out and got into the boat,
but that night they caught nothing.
When it was already dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore;
but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to them, “Children, have you caught anything to eat?”
They answered him, “No.”
So he said to them, “Cast the net over the right side of the boat
and you will find something.”
So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in
because of the number of fish.
So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.”
When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord,
he tucked in his garment, for he was lightly clad,
and jumped into the sea.
The other disciples came in the boat,
for they were not far from shore, only about a hundred yards,
dragging the net with the fish.
When they climbed out on shore,
they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread.
Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you just caught.”
So Simon Peter went over and dragged the net ashore
full of one hundred fifty-three large fish.
Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.
Jesus said to them, “Come, have breakfast.”
And none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?”
because they realized it was the Lord.
Jesus came over and took the bread and gave it to them,
and in like manner the fish.
This was now the third time Jesus was revealed to his disciples
after being raised from the dead.
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture
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"Jesus came over, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This marked the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after being raised from the dead." —John 21:13-14
Simon Peter is a striking example of God's mercy. He said one of the worst things you can say to Jesus by denying the necessity of the cross (Mt 16:22). Yet the Lord mercifully continued to teach and serve Peter. After bluntly denying that he would deny Christ (Lk 22:33), Peter promptly denied Him three times right before His crucifixion (Lk 22:61). However, the Lord forgave Peter again and again. The risen
Jesus even came to Peter on the morning of the Resurrection (Lk 24:34) and appeared to Peter with the apostles several other times. Then after Peter had met with the risen Christ at least three times, Peter decided to go back into the fishing business (Jn 21:3ff), although Jesus had called him out of fishing for fish to be fishing for men (see Mt 4:19).
Nonetheless, Jesus had mercy on Peter, forgave him again and again, gave him the Holy Spirit, chose him to preach at the first Christian Pentecost, and made him the first pope, as well as a missionary and a martyr. Jesus gave Peter inexhaustible mercies. Be merciful as Jesus is.
Prayer: Father, make me a missionary of mercy.
Promise: "There is no salvation in anyone else, for there is no other name in the whole world given to men by which we are to be saved." —Acts 4:12
Praise: "This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it" (Ps 118:24).
Presentation Ministries
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Abandonment to Divine Providence
- by Jean-Pierre de Caussade
BOOK II,
CHAPTER II. THE DUTIES OF THOSE SOULS CALLED BY GOD TO THE STATE OF ABANDONMENT
SECTION V. The Duty of the Present Moment: The Only Rule
From souls in this state God exacts the most perfect docility to the action of His grace.
In the state of abandonment the only rule is the duty of the present moment. In this the soul is light as a feather, liquid as water, simple as a child, active as a ball in receiving and following all the inspirations of grace. Such souls have no more consistence and rigidity than molten metal. As this takes any form according to the mould into which it is poured, so these souls are pliant and easily receptive of any
form that God chooses to give them. In a word, their disposition resembles the atmosphere, which is affected by every breeze; or water, which flows into any shaped vessel exactly filling every crevice. They are before God like a perfectly woven fabric with a clear surface; and neither think, nor seek to know what God will be pleased to trace thereon, because they have confidence in Him, they abandon themselves to Him, and, entirely absorbed by their duty, they think not of themselves, nor of
what may be necessary for them, nor of how to obtain it. The more assiduously do they apply themselves to their little work, so simple, so hidden, so secret, and outwardly contemptible, the more does God embroider and embellish it with brilliant colours. On the surface of this simple canvas of love and obedience His hand traces the most beautiful design, the most delicate, and intricate pattern, the most divine figures. "Mirificavit Dominus sanctum suum.‚" "The Lord hath made His holy
one wonderful‚" (Psalm iv). It is true that a canvas simply and blindly given up to the work of the pencil only feels its movement at each moment. Each blow of the hammer on the chisel can only produce one cruel mark at a time, and the stone struck by repeated blows cannot know, nor see the form produced by them. It only feels that it is being diminished, filed, cut, and altered by the chisel. And a stone that is destined to become a crucifix or a statue without knowing it, if it were asked,
"What is happening to you?‚" would reply if it could speak, "Do not ask me, I only know one thing, and that is, to remain immovable in the hands of my master, to love him, and to endure all that he inflicts upon me. As for the end for which I am destined, it is his business to understand how it is to be accomplished; I am as ignorant of what he is doing as of what I am destined to become; all I know is that his work is the best, and the most perfect that could be, and I receive each blow of the
chisel as the most excellent thing that could happen to me, although, truth to tell, each blow, in my opinion, causes the idea of ruin, destruction, and disfigurement. But that is not my affair; content with the present moment, I think of nothing but my duty, and I endure the work of this clever master without knowing, or occupying myself about it."
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