Scripture readings for Third Sunday of Easter:
Acts 5:27-32, 40-41
Psalm 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-12, 13
Revelation 5:11-14
John 21:1-19 or John 21:1-14
After Easter, what do we do?
Or, to put it another way, what difference does the resurrection of Jesus make? What does it look like to follow Christ now risen from the dead, now ascended? How do we follow him now that he dwells among us no longer as he once did, no longer walking the dusty roads of Galilee and the streets of Jerusalem?
These, I think, are the sorts of questions this story from John’s Gospel helps answer, this account of how Jesus “revealed himself” by the Sea of Tiberias. At least, that’s one of the ways I’ve often read it. This story is indeed complex and rich, and there are many lessons, mystical and otherwise, to be learned from it; but what I’ve always contemplated most is what this remarkable story teaches us about life after Easter, how we now encounter the Lord.
You see, when Peter says, “I’m going fishing,” I’ve long interpreted those words to be something of an admission of despair. Peter is going back to his old job, taking the night shift, fishing for fish again, no more souls to fish for anymore. I mean, what else is he to do now?
Peter and some of the other disciples go back to their old way of life. Perhaps after Easter nothing really changes. Maybe those three years with Jesus weren’t meant to change everything; maybe their time with Jesus was meant to form them only for season, to shape them only for a time; maybe their time with Jesus was meant only to influence them; maybe Jesus belongs to their past and no longer their present. Maybe that’s just the way it is.
“I’m going fishing,” Peter said; that’s how I understand it. Maybe that’s what Peter was doing, letting Easter become merely a memory. But that’s also why they catch nothing, because they’re living like Easter means nothing. Going back to their old way of life is fruitless. Life after Easter devoid of the presence of Christ is unproductive, tedious, pointless. Again, that’s just how I read the first three sad verses of this story.
But then the miracle. Hence the merciful revelation: Easter is reprised just for them. At dawn (note the allusion) they hear a voice; like Mary Magdalene, they’re not sure who it is. Cast the net on the other side of the boat; obedient to command, they welcome abundance. The beloved disciple recognizes the Lord; Peter, hearing the beloved disciple’s words, recognizes the Lord as well. The apostle accepts the mystic’s witness, and Jesus breaks again into a world that has so quickly forgotten the Son.
But what follows the word of the risen Lord? The meal. Jesus welcomes them to a meal, to eat the fish and bread he’s prepared for them. Look closely for Eucharistic verbs, how Jesus “took the bread and gave it to them.” Don’t worry too much about exegetical details, rather, see the story in broad terms. The risen Lord reveals himself again, enters again the lives of his disciples.
Peter and the other disciples had perhaps given up a little and gone back to their old way of life, but Jesus shows himself to them again in word and in meal. Here we’re beginning to come to the answer. After Easter, what do we do? The answer is we remain with the Lord in word and sacrament. The lesson here is the same one learned in that inn just off the Emmaus Road. It’s the same lesson taught every day in every Catholic parish all over the world.
That’s where the risen Lord is to be found – in the Mass. That’s the difference the resurrection makes: Christ is now present to everyone in the Eucharist. Jesus himself alluded to this when he talked about the grain of wheat that must fall into the earth and die and then bear much fruit (John 12:24). He was talking about himself, about how he would be present even on the altar of your own little parish Church. That’s why things can’t go back to the same old ways after Easter. Because Jesus isn’t gone. He’s as present as he ever was.
But how then is life different? What difference does the resurrection make? Here we come to the rest of the story, the story of Peter’s rehabilitation and commissioning. Declaring his love for Christ three times, three times given the command to tend and feed Christ’s sheep, Jesus ordains Peter a shepherd-martyr. His life is no longer his own; he belongs now entirely to the risen Lord whom he’s encountered and who claims him as his own. Here we see a disciple’s full progression from despair and emptiness to sacramental encounter and mission and witness. It’s here also that we should be thinking about ourselves and what Easter means to us, how it changes us.
The sea of Tiberias is like your own little parish Church. Christ is present here just as he was present there. The same voice calls you; the same Christ commissions you; the same Christ calls you to follow him, even if it means giving your life. The end of Easter is our transformation in Christ, fulfilling the call to be like him, to die and rise just like him and to make Easter a reality, a whole new world without end.
Father Joshua J. Whitfield is pastor of St. Rita Catholic Community in Dallas and author of “The Crisis of Bad Preaching” (Ave Maria Press, $17.95) and other books.
