Homily Easter 2C: Fishing with the Lord and St. Peter

 Homily for 3^rd Sunday of Easter Year C 2022

Acts 5:27b-32,40b-41; Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-19

Introduction

Today’s gospel passage that comes from John Chapter 21 is kind of like a lagniappe. You see in John Chapter 20, the evangelist had kind of concluded the gospel, saying for example, that there were many other signs that Jesus did that he did not write – they were just too many. But that he had written those few to help the reader believe that Jesus was the Son of God.

So, why then this additional chapter 21?  Why is John landing the plane and then taking off again?  I want to suggest that perhaps John does so to give us three important messages, nuggets of inspiration for our life as a Church.

Scripture and Theology

The first nugget is the image of fishing.  “I am going fishing” Simon Peter tells his friends.  We probably recall a similar episode at the beginning of St. Luke’s gospel, in which Peter and his friends were fishing and the Lord met them and converted them into fishers of men.  It might then seem that Peter and his friends have now returned to Galilee, to resume their previous livelihood of ordinary fishing, since the great enterprise of Jesus had seemingly come to nothing.  But with this post-Easter fishing story, John wants to remind us of the essential missionary dimension of the Church, the fishing of men and women for Christ. 

Perhaps that is why Jesus does again for them what he did at their first meeting. After they have caught nothing on their own, perhaps because they have been away from fishing for three years and have lost their touch, he suggests: “Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something.”  And like the first time, they put aside their fisherman pride, obey the stranger and catch a boatload of fish.  They are back again!  They can do it, with his help of course.

But what kind of fish are they to catch?  Only trout or tilapia, cod or cat fish, swordfish or my absolute favourite, salmon?  By giving the small detail of how many fish they caught – 153 in number, John is suggesting that our fishing expedition for Christ must be universal; St. Jerome explains 153 was thought to be the number of types of fish in the sea. So, the disciples are called to catch men and women of all nations and languages, races and cultures; no fish is to be excluded from the Lord’s catch.

I have heard it said that only in America, where you have recreational fishing do people go fishing on a full stomach, with coolers of beer and sandwiches. In many other places fishing is a livelihood, a means of putting food on the table.  Perhaps that is why the Lord had breakfast ready for them when they come ashore, for they were fishing on an empty stomach.  When Peter said “I am going fishing” his outing was not a hobby, but a livelihood, as is the missionary work of the Church. 

And that brings us to the second message of this chapter. Apart from the reminder that it is the Church’s mission to fish men and women for Christ, we are also told that said fishing can only be done with Christ’s help. Already we have seen that these experienced fishermen had failed to catch any fish.  And they only did so, after Jesus intervened and gave them some advice.

But we can also see this message conveyed in the breakfast prepared at the charcoal fire.  This breakfast hearkens back to the many miracles in which Jesus showed God’s generous providence: providing wine at the Wedding of Cana when they had run out; multiplying loaves and fishes to feed the crowds; providing living water that did not run out to the Samaritan woman at the Well.  But perhaps the most important reference of the breakfast is the Eucharist.  The fish and bread represent the Eucharist.  Like he did at the Last Supper, with bread and wine, Jesus feeds his apostles with bread and fish, to nourish not only their fatigued bodies from all the overnight fishing, but also to nourish their souls, for the mission they are about to undertake.  And so, not only does the Lord feed his disciples with the Word when he advises them where to fish, he now also feeds them with bread and fish, already prepared for them, just like he does in the Eucharist.  They went fishing on an empty stomach; they return home with a full stomach in more ways than one. Our missionary work must be based in the Word and the Eucharist.

This charcoal fire brings us to a third message from this chapter.  Do you recall another charcoal fire in the gospels, the charcoal fire at which Peter denied the Lord, not once, not twice, but three times (Jn. 18: 15-18, 25-27)?  Now at a different fire, one on which Jesus is making breakfast, the Lord gives Peter a chance to retract his threefold denial, asking him three times: "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these [other disciples]?"  As we heard, three times, Peter responds that he loved the Lord.  And each time, the Lord entrusts Peter with a task: "feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep."

At the risk of mixing up metaphors, we might say that in making Peter the shepherd of the Church, he is also appointing him captain of the fishing boat, which is the Church.  Peter is thus not only responsible for bringing in more fish, but he is also responsible for nourishing the sheep already in the fold.  He is responsible for the salvation of all the disciples, for the whole Church.  Peter thus became the first Pope, the first papá or father of the whole Church, for that is what pope means.

As we know from various episodes in the gospels, Peter wasn’t the sharpest knife the drawer to say nothing about his denial of the Lord.  But the Lord saw something in him, perhaps even this very manifest weakness, that would make him the ideal captain of the boat.    Since Peter, Popes have carried on that same task of feeding and tending the lambs and sheep of the Church, of fishing men and women for Christ.  To be honest, some did a terrible job at it.  But most have done a great job, like the last three popes that we have had.  With his charisma Pope John Paul tended the sheep by giving them hope; with his intellect, Pope Benedict XVI tended the lambs by feeding their faith with truth; with his love for the marginalized, Pope Francis has fed the lambs with the message of love.  Faith, hope and love.

Christian Life

My friends, as we continue the Easter season, we must take to heart these three messages of John’s very last chapter.

First, we must never forget that like the apostles, we too have been commissioned to be fishers of men and women, all men and women for Christ. There is nobody who should be denied a chance to hear the gospel, not even those who like Peter have sinned terribly, as Pope Francis continues to remind us every day.

Second, we must never forget that our fishing expeditions cannot be done based on our own efforts alone; we don’t go fishing on a full stomach, we go fishing on any empty stomach, so that the Lord himself might feed us and give us the wisdom and strength to fish well.  Despite our human skills at fishing, such as our gifts of preaching, praying, and human virtues, we always need his help.  We get this help primarily from his Word and from prayer and the sacraments.

Third, as we are carrying out this fishing expedition, we are not lone-rangers, but have a captain to lead us.  This is the successor of Peter and his fellow bishops who succeed the apostles.  No Catholic worth the name can claim to be fishing in the name of Jesus if he or she does apart from or worse still, in opposition to the captain of the boat, the Holy Father and bishops who are in communion with him.  To do otherwise is the very definition of being a Protestant.

Conclusion

One final thought.  What do you do when your computer or other electronic gadget is having problems?  Sometimes resetting it will do the trick.  That is what Jesus has done here.  After the resurrection, what better place to serve as a symbolic reset than Galilee, the place where he first met the disciples, the place where he first commissioned them.  Now he sends them out again full of strength.  What the Lord did for Peter and his friends, he can do for you and men.  Are we in need of a reset as we go about our mission in life?  Let us return to Galilee with the Lord.