3rd Sunday of Easter - Year C - Going Fishing & “Two Were Bound for Emmaus”
Friends, we all know what it’s like when you are driving along the road and suddenly realize that the car that has been following you for the last ten minutes is in fact a police car. You do an immediate check of the speedometer, examine your conscience and perhaps instinctively ease off on the accelerator.
In this weekend’s Gospel (Jn. 21:1-19), the Beloved Disciple recognizes Jesus - not so much as just Jesus but as the Lord. How could they come to terms with the fact that the one they had followed, become friends with, rubbed shoulders with, become annoyed with over the past few years, and then had abandoned to face his humiliating and brutalizing murder alone was in fact the Lord God? What on earth went through their minds? All this time – when they didn’t realize it – he was the Lord. I wonder if their first reaction was to feel their guilt.
Whatever they expected, Jesus had his own agenda. He had breakfast cooking, and told them to come and share. Is that the Jesus, the Lord, the God whom you instinctively imagine? Think of the pictures or the statues you are familiar with. How do they gel with: ‘Come and have breakfast?’
And Peter? To be of any future use to Jesus, to find the freedom to be his own man, Peter had to come to terms with his past. Peter had denied any contact with, even any knowledge of the arrested Jesus. He had abandoned him and cleared out – overwhelmed and frightened. He needed to come to terms with that, or it would haunt him and paralyze him for life.
Jesus’ initiative, his triple interrogation, gave Peter the chance. It enabled him to state where he was at – to face his utter failure, the shame and remorse, and probably self-hatred, that plagued him. Jesus not only forgave him, but trusted him, and entrusted him with a precious responsibility: Feed my sheep. That triple interrogation gave Peter the chance to recognize and to declare something more than sorrow. It helped him to recognize that, despite and along with his weakness and his utter failure, he also loved Jesus – loved him at the same time that he was denying him. And Jesus wanted him to know that.
If we are to be of any use to Jesus, if we are to find the freedom to be our own persons, we need to see and to come to terms with our failures and our messes. At the same time, and no less importantly, we need to recognize that we do love Jesus. That is the way it is with us – still on the journey, not there yet, not yet totally redeemed by the transforming love God has for us, yet on our way through God’s grace.
In honor of the Gospel this weekend, we’d like to share our latest video, "Two Were Bound for Emmaus", a hymn by Bob Hurd and based on Luke 24 and John 21. This previously unreleased version includes piano, violin and SATB choir.
Video can be watched by clicking here or on the picture below:
