The famous English author G. K. Chesterton’s shortest essay was the following:
The London Times asked various writers for essays on the topic “What’s Wrong with the World?” Chesterton replied,
Dear Sirs:
I am.
Sincerely yours,
G. K. Chesterton
Something was wrong with the disciples.
They returned to “life as it used to be” by fishing during the night. Peter especially felt disqualified for having denied Jesus three times so he went back to his old job.
They did not even recognize Jesus at the shore when it was morning, so Jesus calls out and asks them:
"Children, have you caught anything to eat?"
They answered him, "No."
1: Open fridge, nothing to eat.
2: Open cupboard, nothing to eat.
3: Lower standards and repeat.
Notice, it was during the day that Jesus calls them back to their true vocation. Back then, they assigned a letter to each number, so if you take the one fish John 21:9 and add it to one hundred fifty-three it equals one hundred fifty-four and, in code, that spells the word “Day.”
The Day is a title of Jesus. The day star; the never-ending day of blessed Eternity.
2. I heard someone give an illustration once about a wooden well bucket he found.
He thought it was useless at first, because it had been sitting next to a barn in the sun, unused for a long time. He could see daylight between the wooden slats of the bucket. Certainly, this thing would never hold water again.
But an older man with him tied the bucket to the well rope and let it drop into the water below. In a couple of days they came back and turned the crank to draw the bucket back up. It was full of clear, cool well water and was not leaking a drop.
The water had re-hydrated the wooden slats until they fit together as originally designed, and the bucket was useful again.
Peter saw that the Lord was making him fruitful again so he jumped for joy into the water and got rehydrated like that wooden bucket!
The author Ling Ma said in her book, “A second chance doesn’t mean you’re in the clear. In many ways, it is the more difficult thing. Because a second chance means that you have to try harder. You must rise to the challenge without the blind optimism of ignorance.”
And so Jesus and Peter had a little interview about what happened with his denials, and Peter got stronger afterwards, e.g. in our Second Reading, Peter said to the court officers and high priest: “We must obey God rather than men.”
What does Jesus say to us through Peter at that life-changing breakfast on the beach with Jesus cooking breakfast for you! Wow. Baked tilapia con salsa picante. Christ asks us to take care of each other—feed my sheep.
Verse 11 says Peter went over and dragged the net ashore by himself. Never doubt that you can’t handle the responsibility of your vocation because the Lord strengthens you with “graces of state” which the Catechism says, “accompany the exercises of responsibilities of the Christian life and the ministries with the Church” (no. 2004).
The Lord is helping. In fact, never in the Gospels do the disciples catch a fish without Jesus’ help.
Verse 11 also says, “Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.” The word “torn” is schisma or schism Examine your heart whether you cause ungodly disunity or godly unity?
“Cast the net over the right side of the boat- The right side means new methods, new evangelization. Easter means we can’t go back to our old life!
Amen.
