April 6, 2018

Gospel: Jn 21:1-14
After this, Jesus revealed himself to the disciples by the Lake of Tiberias. He appeared to them in this way: Simon Peter, Thomas who was called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two other disciples were together; and Simon Peter said to them, “I’m going fishing.” They replied, “We will come with you.” And they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. When the sun came up, Jesus was standing on the shore, but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus called out, “Friends, have you anything to eat?” They answered, “Nothing.” Then he said to them, “Throw the net on the right side of the boat and you will find something.” When they had lowered the net, they were not able to pull it in because of the great number of fish. Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Lord!” At these words, “It’s the Lord!” Simon Peter put on his clothes, for he was stripped for work, and jumped into the water. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish; they were not far from land, about a hundred meters. When they landed, they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it, and some bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught.” So Simon Peter climbed into the boat and pulled the net to shore. It was full of big fish — one hundred and fifty-three but, in spite of this, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” And not one of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” for they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and he did the same with the fish. This was the third time that Jesus revealed himself to his disciples after rising from the dead.

Reflections
THE STONE WHICH THE
BUILDERS REJECTED HAS
BECOME THE CORNERSTONE.
Peter, filled by the Holy Spirit, uttered these words to the Jews to show to them that Jesus, whom they have rejected after thousands of years waiting for him, is indeed the Messiah as proven by the curing of the cripple in his name. Sometimes there are students who seemed quite ordinary in school but later on became very successful in their career or became heroes or models of excellence. They were not given any honors, they graduated without any “laude” and their teachers perhaps never thought anything special will happen to them. I am thinking here for example of Clarissa Ocampo. She was a very quiet girl, not at all an activist type, or champion of any cause. And yet decades later, she showed a singular courage when she witnessed in the impeachment trial of a former President which led to his conviction. Who would have thought that that quiet girl would somehow change the course of history. She suffered personally from that courageous act ending her marriage, her career as a banker, and having her children undergo counselling, aside from having threats to her life. But she rose to the moment. And all her mentors felt it was worthwhile — all their effort to inculcate social responsibility in their students.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2018