THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER (2025)
Readings:
Acts of the Apostles 5:27-32, 40b-41
Psalms 30:2, 4-6, 11-13
Revelation 5:11-14
John 21:1-19
The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles (the Book that provides virtually every first reading through the Easter season) looks much farther ahead than the gospels which mostly recount Jesus’ resurrection appearances. Indeed, Acts shows the difficult and challenging side of professing your faith in Jesus, difficulties that would soon escalate into the period of the Roman persecutions, which would take the lives of virtually all of the apostles, and thousands of other disciples. Last weekend we saw the preaching of Peter enjoying some modest success: “a large number of people from the towns in the vicinity of Jerusalem gathered [around the apostles], bringing the sick and those disturbed by unclean spirits, and they were all cured.” As we can surely imagine, this kind of popularity and success engendered the animosity and “jealousy” of the religious leaders of the day, who “laid hands upon the apostles and put them in the public jail.”
We do not get the account of the apostles’ escape, which was enabled by an Angel, nor the account of them returning to the “temple area,” where the authorities will easily find them. The Holy Spirit is seen as enabling them and compelling them to continue their teaching of the gospel, regardless of the personal cost. The Jewish authorities, wishing to put them before the entire Sanhedrin (the full Senate of the Israelites), were less than pleased that they could not still be found in jail, and they wanted to put them to death, but feared the apostles’ popularity among the people. The apostles were easily retrieved, who they then “flogged” [not in our reading], and “ordered them to stop speaking in the name of Jesus.” The strength of the apostles’ faith is evident in their strong desire not to be deterred from “teaching and proclaiming the Messiah, Jesus.”
We share in the same ‘teaching’ ministry of the first apostles/disciples, and like them, both in Church and in our homes, in our workplaces, wherever we find ourselves, we are not meant “to stop teaching and proclaiming the Messiah, Jesus.” All of us are not professional preachers or teachers, but we are nonetheless called to preach the gospel without fear, if not with our lips, then with our lives. While we luckily live in a country without the chance of physical persecution, nevertheless we stand a real chance of ‘suffering’ for our beliefs. It should be evident that in such a divided country as ours, our suffering will be more emotional than physical. Standing up for what is right, for “what Jesus would do,” often inspires derision, banishment, separation, revenge, retribution, name-calling and the like. Individuals who see the cruelty of an immigration policy gone awry are called partisan, when they should be called Jesus freaks. Let’s be clear, being genuinely Christian is not a part time job, and our due regard for the separation of church and state should never prevent us from speaking up on what Jesus would do, even if it should cause us some ‘emotional’ harm. The martyrs were willing to sacrifice their very lives for the ability to speak truth to power. We should not refrain from speaking that same truth for fear of being ostracized.
Today’s gospel (the same gospel read at Saturday’s funeral for Pope Francis, and also read at St. John Paul II’s funeral) takes us into the territory of John’s epilogue, the chapter added, no doubt, by one of John’s disciples. It would almost seem as though Peter and the other disciples had decided to get back to making a living by fishing now that Jesus was dead. The unrecognizable person on the shore shouts the simple question, “Children (a rather affectionate term for a total stranger), have you caught anything to eat?” When they answer “No,” the individual with boundless insight tells them to cast their nets over the right side of the boat, and the net becomes so full “that they were not able to pull it in because of the number of fish.” John finally recognizes that it is Jesus who is speaking to them, and the ever impetuous Peter jumps in the water and heads to shore. Jesus invites the apostles to have some breakfast, and in words which echo their Agape dinners, Jesus “took the bread and gave it to them.” This appearance take on a very definite Eucharistic flavor.
What is most interesting about today’s gospel is the exchange of Jesus with Peter. It is often called the scriptural redemption of Peter, for with each question of Jesus the stain of his three-time denial of Jesus is washed away, and in this passage he is clearly regarded as the head of all the apostles. Peter’s three time profession of love for Jesus redeems Peter of whatever residual guilt, real or imagined, might remain from His denial. Peter is to do the same as what the Good Shepherd does; he is to feed, and tend, and nurture the flock that will make up the Church instituted by Christ. The very end of the gospel makes the suffering that will accompany doing God’s will obvious.
We know the rest of the story, and we have been taught about the innumerable people who, coming to believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, dedicated their entire lives to preaching and teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is no easy task walking in the footsteps of Jesus, for as Jesus’ footsteps led Him to Jerusalem and the suffering on the Cross, so, too, our following in His footsteps will lead us to suffering and pain, even the emotional pain spoken of above. May the understandable fear of any pain never cause us to neglect our responsibilities as Christians to call out those who preach another gospel than that of Jesus Christ.
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