Jesus calls His disciples but they do
not recognize Him. He tells them to cast
their net by the right side of their boat.
They catch a lot of fish, 153 fish John tells us. All night the disciples did not catch any,
but at Jesus’ word they were able to fill their net to bursting with fish. John tells Peter, it is the Lord. Now they recognize Him, they go to Him, and
they share a meal. Jesus tells His
disciples that yes they were fishermen but now they are already fishers of men
because He makes them catch men for the Kingdom and not anymore fish. What they need materially they will be
provided for, what they need to do right now and on the following days till the
end is that they need to bring people to Jesus.
Their past life is already gone; their present life is what matters now. What they were is history; what they are now
is servants of the Lord. Who they were
is now replaced for the better by who they are, Christians, followers of
Christ.
Jesus asks Peter three times if he
loves Him. Three times Peter, during
Jesus’ trial, betrayed his Lord; but now three times Peter confesses his love
for Jesus. Jesus confirms Peter in this
love and prophecies that Peter will carry his mission out till the end. Indeed Peter is faithful and he lived and he
died thence after with the Lord and for the Lord. His falls did not matter in the eyes of
Jesus. His betrayals became nothing to
Him. His unfaithfulness is
pardoned. Now Peter becomes a model of reconciliation,
penance and leading a new life.
Sisters and brothers, in the same way,
Jesus today calls us to this new life and He calls us to abandon our old
life. He calls us today to forget the
sins we committed because they are pardoned the moment we seek
forgiveness. Instead He calls us today
to concentrate on the here and now and to make our lives better each new
day. We are no longer fishermen, but
fishers of men. We are no longer for
these material things only or for these persons we are attached to but we are now
mainly of the Lord. We belong to Him and
we do what He asks of us. We are no
longer traitors who sinned against Jesus.
We are from now on children of God.
It does not matter that we fell, what matters is that we rose up
again. Amen.
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