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Image: Christ's Charge to Peter by Raphael (1480-1520), Victoria and Albert Museum
Easter 3 C
John 21:1-19
How do you start the day? Get out of bed, stretch, open your curtains or blinds to get the sunlight in to your rooms, have breakfast with your coffee (or some lemon water), do a morning prayer, do something uplifting that you enjoy, set a positive mindset . . .
But in fact, the first step to beginning the day well starts the night before by getting a good night sleep. In reality, it’s not quite easy to maintain wellbeing, especially these days when our health care system still struggles to get back to normal with the estimated surgery and diagnostic backlog across Manitoba exceeding 169,000, as of this March.
Ancient sages said: “When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless, and intelligence cannot be applied” (Herophilos, 335-280 BC); “Health is the greatest possession; contentment is the greatest treasure; and confidence is the greatest friend” (Lao Tzu, b. 571 BC). In a modern-day understanding, health or wellbeing is more than a state of physical. It encompasses mutually interdependent dimensions: physical, intellectual, social, spiritual, vocational, financial, emotional, mental, and environmental. Wellness, in a broader sense, necessitates good self-stewardship, for ourselves and for those we care about.
Although we know what is good for us and how we can do better, making the right choices for wellbeing can be challenging. For many, New Year’s resolutions don’t stay long. We need to regulate ourselves to reach certain ideals, cultivating good habits to bring desirable changes. To successful habit change, there are two indispensable components, that is, self-awareness and strategies. We need to know what we are lacking and what we need in order to come up with a plan to balance things out.
Sometimes change takes a long time. It requires repeated experiments and failures, a dynamic and fluctuating process that allows you to become the best kind of person that your potentials and circumstances will allow. The attempts against all odds are unquestionably worthwhile, and one small success can lead to another toward ongoing betterment. The future lies in the choices you make today, and keep on doing your good work, with love, faith, and perseverance, so that “your deeds of late are better than at first” (Rev 2:19), and “never let it rest till your good is better, and your better is best” (St. Jerome). This is how we care about our spiritual wellbeing.
Jesus was concerned about the wellbeing of His disciples, and certainly, He is concerned about our wellbeing, too.
After Jesus died, His disciples were uncertain as to what they should do next. Life must go on, so they returned to their former occupation of fishing, in order to gain a livelihood, embarking on the sea of Tiberias, otherwise called the sea of Galilee. This is the Gospel passage given to us to meditate today.
All night the disciples had toiled, but all they caught was nothing but weed. They felt weary, hungry, and hopeless. In life, we experience disappointments like this. But, this is a part of a big picture. We can understand from the perspective of the twenty-first century that this sense of uncertainty contrasts with their assured purpose from the day of Pentecost on. We must continue labouring in faith and prayer, believing in God’s providence at the end.
The risen Lord showed up at their work, in the common place of their lives, in their vulnerable moments. At first, the disciples didn’t know that it was Jesus. Perhaps they couldn’t see Him clearly through the morning mist on the lake. Perhaps they were too tired to pay attention or preoccupied with a thought of their unsuccessful night of fishing. But, think about Jesus always; do not get distracted or dismayed by your unsuccessful attempts.
There was no reason why fishing on one side of the boat would be better than the other side. But, Jesus makes an odd suggestion to His disciples. “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some” (Jn 21:6). This seems like a test of their ability to seek God’s guidance from an unknown person calling out fishing instructions from the shore. They didn’t know it was Jesus until they caught so many fish, unable to halt it.
Jesus’ instruction was to simply change the side. Sometimes changes are necessary, and we should not be afraid to make a change as long as we are in the right direction guided by Jesus. The difference is not between right and left, or between this and that, but between working with and without divine guidance.
In Matthew, Jesus said, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people” (4:19), which is a command for preaching the Gospel and making disciples. He never commanded them to go fishing. But, Jesus used the fishing skills of His disciples and their common workplaces to show them how to fish, how to change their common practices in order to experience God’s grace. And, His blessing was upon those who followed the divine counsel without a question. Not only giving them an abundant amount of fish, but Jesus also kindly prepared breakfast for them.
The disciples put down their nets for a while and sat with Jesus to commune with Him. No doubt it was a delicious heavenly meal. The Lord whom Peter denied three times appeared to Peter and helped him and his fellow fishermen to catch fish. What would they say in front of the divine presence of Jesus? They ate in silence and humility. This is such a moving scene. Simon, son of Jonah was singled out by Jesus, among the other disciples, to be commissioned.
Jesus knew Peter loved Him, but He asks, “Do you love me more than these?” This question was for Peter’s self-examination. We can only love Jesus with the best love which we are capable of, not to the degree He loves us. We can only open our hearts and examine them as Peter did.
Jesus commissions Peter with two commands – Feed My lambs; tend My sheep. A shepherd’s job is more than feeding the lambs. The sheep needs to be properly collected, attended, and guided. The same thing applies to parents who raise their children, to teachers who mentor their students beyond imparting their knowledge of a subject, and to those who are in the leadership to enhance the wellbeing of people.
A shepherd should be able to identify a sick or injured sheep within the flock and to provide a needed care with compassion. When one sheep gets sick, sometimes the whole flock can get sick, and such an event can lead to a catastrophic situation for a farmer. A shepherd experiences joys and sorrows with the flock when there are births and deaths. A shepherd feels attached to the flock, of course. But, Jesus emphasizes that the sheep is not Peter’s nor ours but His. Everything comes from God, and everything belongs to God the Creator. That is the essence of tending the flock.
Jesus didn’t ask Peter why he denied Him. He didn’t ask if Peter feels sorry about that. Instead, Jesus asked Peter if he loves Him, to restore Peter’s broken heart. And, Jesus changed Peter to set his eyes on the higher ground. Feed and tend the sheep the way Jesus did.
Jesus said to His disciples, “Come and see,” and they began to follow (Jn 1:39). An early Christian scholar, Origen, interpreted that to come is an invitation to action; and to see is an invitation to contemplation. That is to say His dwelling is not to be understood by words but by works; come by believing and working, and then see by understanding.
When we follow Jesus, we will learn that He is gentle and humble in heart, and we will find rest. When we follow Jesus, we will dine with Him. When we follow Jesus, we will “inherit the kingdom prepared for [us] from the foundation of the world” (Mt 25:34-36). But, to follow Jesus is to “enter through the narrow gate” (Mt 7:13-14). Before feeding the five thousand, Jesus said to the disciples, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while” (Mk 6:31). We will have to pass through some places where we have never intended to go on our own. Calling is about doing God’s work, the works that God tells us to do for the wellbeing of His creation in the way He has shown us, not the works that we want to do in our own ways.
In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus spoke of Peter’s future when another would bind Peter and carry him to a place he would not want to go, a place with stretched out hands, crucified on a cross. These words must have given Peter a chill, if Peter had understood what Jesus meant. Yet, it must have given Peter assurance, as well. Jesus assured Peter that he would face the challenge of the cross but he would embrace it in the name of the Lord, in utter faithfulness. Ancient writers state that Peter was crucified about thirty-four years after this; and that he deemed it so glorious a thing to die for Christ that he begged to be crucified with his head downwards, not considering himself worthy to die in the same posture in which his Lord did.
Come, feed, and tend – Jesus’ commands are a present imperative. St. Peter had followed Christ and became the foundation of the first Church, but not continuously in the past. St. Paul had carried the good news of Christ to gentiles in an extraordinary way, but in the exact opposite way before he was converted. Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.
This is our story. All failed in the past, but all are given a second chance. Life is precious, and everyone has a limited time in life. Each of us has a purpose given from the Lord to fulfill God’s mission in the world, whether it is small or big. The Lord will fill your cup full, just as He filled the boat of His disciples with full of fish, yet the net remained not torn. And, He asks, “Do you love me? Do you dearly love me?”