A Reflection for the 3rd Sunday of Easter (Year C).
Acts 5:27 -32, 40-41 – Revelation 5:11-14 – John 21:1-19.
Breakfast is an important meal of the day, isn’t it? ‘Breakfast’ “breaks the [overnight] fast” between going to sleep and getting up, and it kick-starts our day. The human body needs to take in essential nutrients every morning in order to sustain it through the day and to stay healthy. There is no mention in the Gospels of a breakfast involving Jesus and His disciples until the post-resurrection experience noted by St John in today’s Gospel reading. The risen Lord’s “breakfast on the beach” with the disciples happened after the institution of the Holy Eucharist, and this recorded evidence adds to the proofs that the power of death couldn’t hold Him, since a spirit doesn’t have flesh and bones (Lk 24:39) as He did and so cannot eat.
Today we reflect upon the third appearance of Jesus to His disciples. By now, all the apostles had come to the sure and certain belief that Jesus really had risen from the dead. When our own faith is certain and well-founded, our personal relationship with Jesus becomes celebratory. We rejoice! So, today we celebrate Jesus’ preparation and sharing of breakfast with His disciples who now knew Him to be the risen Lord. Jesus invited them – and, by extension, all of us – to “come and have breakfast.”
At the climax of the Holy Eucharist, Jesus invites you and me to consume His flesh and blood (Jn 6:54). St John uses the verb “to gnaw” (τρώγω) rather than the verb “to eat”. What John is urging us to do is to chew literally on the Jesus the Word in Holy Communion, and to chew spiritually on the Word of God in the Bible. We are to take Jesus into ourselves, and to digest Him and His words and His teachings.
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus provided bread, and He had fish cooking over a charcoal fire before He told the disciples to bring Him some of the fish they caught. The risen Lord Jesus, with our cooperation and participation, provides what is to be taken at this breakfast. This breakfast is the Holy Mass. Christ Himself is the celebrant, acting through the priest. Immediately after the Preparation of the Gifts, the priest calls everyone present to Pray, brothers and sisters, that my sacrifice and yours…. Yes, everyone present is called to participate in the holy and unbloody re-presentation of Our Lord’s sacrifice of His flesh and blood to make us right with God. When you have a quiet moment, ponder the question: what do I myself bring to the Lord’s altar in collaboration with His grace at Mass?
What’s on the menu on the beach? There is bread and there is fish. The bread is associated with Jesus the Living Bread (Jn 6:51) of Holy Communion. The fish (from the Greek “ichthus”) was used from the earliest Christian times in the catacombs as a siglum for the person of Jesus. The Greek lettering is ΙΧΘΥΣ which, transliterated, looks like this: I-CH-TH-U-S. These initials stand for “Iesous Christos, Theos ’Uios, Soter”, meaning “Jesus Christ, God, Son, Saviour”. The fish symbol is thus an affirmation of faith in the risen
Christ.
Whenever we participate in the Holy Eucharist, we – like the apostles – witness to His resurrection. We are honoured (1R v.41) to worship and celebrate Him who lives forever and Who is with us in the Blessed Sacrament. In your participation in the Holy Eucharist, remember to revere Jesus as much as you do in Adoration. Jesus requires us to approach the altar with faith in Him, so come before Him with faith that He transubstantiates the bread and wine into His very self, His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, at every Mass. When you receive the sacred species, do so with devotion and decorum because it is the Body and Blood of Jesus the Lamb of God, who is worthy (2R v.13) of our adoration.
Just as Peter was given the opportunity to repent of having denied Jesus (Jn 18:18ff) and restored to the office of caring for Christ’s flock (the Church), so God gives us the opportunity each day to repent of our sins, to receive His forgiveness, and to renew our commitment to Him. God understands that human nature is flawed and weak: that’s why He came to save us and restore us to relationship with Him. We don’t have to be strong people before God chooses us: God chooses what is weak to shame the strong (1Cor 1:27). Jesus calls us to feed His hungry children both literally and spiritually. He calls us to cast our nets on the right side (v.6) which is the depth of His grace (cf. Lk 5:4) and to carry out the missions of feeding His people, serving His people, and of reaching out to those who have neither hope nor trust in God.
Every morning, as soon as we wake up, Jesus calls us to “break our fast” with Him. “Breakfast with Jesus” involves listening to Him, being with Him, and taking on board what He is teaching us. It is Jesus who enlightens us through His words about which side to cast our nets (Gospel v.6) in life in order to be fruitful.
At Mass, Jesus is with us in the Liturgy of the Word, when we listen to the scriptures and reflect on them, and when we bring before God our needs and petitions. Thereafter, He is with us in the Liturgy of the Eucharist, where we articulate our faith in Him as the sacrifice at Calvary is re-presented, and when we receive Him literally in the Holy Communion. When we leave at the end of Mass, we bear the Lord Jesus within us! Let us rejoice in ‘breaking our fast’ with Jesus! Amen. God bless you.