Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “3Simon Peter said, 'I'm going fishing.' They replied, 'We'll come with you.' They went out and got into the boat but caught nothing that night. 4When it was already light, there stood Jesus on the shore, though the disciples did not realise that it was Jesus. 5Jesus called out, 'Haven't you caught anything, friends?' And when they answered, 'No,' 6he said, 'Throw the net out to starboard and you'll find something.' So they threw the net out and could not haul it in because of the quantity of fish. 7The disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, 'It is the Lord.' At these words, 'It is the Lord,' Simon Peter tied his outer garment round him (for he had nothing on) and jumped into the water. 8The other disciples came on in the boat, towing the net with the fish; they were only about a hundred yards from land. 9As soon as they came ashore they saw that there was some bread there and a charcoal fire with fish cooking on it. 10Jesus said, 'Bring some of the fish you have just caught.’” (Jn 21, 3-10).
This is the delightful passage about the miraculous catch of fish by the disciples commanded by the Risen Lord who at dawn appeared to his friends for the third time. If the fact had not been clearly narrated by the Gospel we would never had imagined perhaps that the Lord himself prepared the breakfast for those exhausted fishermen who had toiled all night. There is a maternal touch in the gesture of Jesus who was concerned for these poor men confused by a mystery so much greater than themselves. In fact they had just celebrated a Passover Feast which had revolutionised their existence and transformed human history of every era in every place; the apostles felt they had failed, they failed to meet the expectations of the Messiah. In this going fishing of Peter and the disciples one senses a sort of resignation, giving in, not so much to God, as to one's own wretchedness; it was as if with the words “I am going fishing”, Peter, immediately followed by the others, was saying “what else can we do”.
Recently the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, while in Vigevano and Pavia to visit the great Saint Augustine, commented very humanly that moment in the life of the apostles: “After the "scandal" of the Cross, the disciples had returned to their land and their work as fishermen, to the activities they had carried out before they met Jesus. They had returned to their previous life and this suggests the atmosphere of dispersion and bewilderment that prevailed in their communities (cf. Mk 14: 27; Mt 26: 31). It was difficult for the disciples to understand what had happened. But while everything seemed to have ended, once again, as on the road to Emmaus, it was Jesus who came to his friends. This time he met them by the lake, a place that evokes the trials and tribulations of life; he met them when day was breaking, after a futile night-long effort. Their nets were empty. In a certain way, this seems to sum up their experience with Jesus: they had known him, they had been beside him, and he had promised them so many things. Nevertheless, they found themselves with empty nets and no fish. ” (Benedict XVI, Vigevano 21 April 2007).
We too find ourselves now and then, with empty nets, tired on our roads to Emmaus, and every time the Lord comes to help us grow in humility and trust in the infinite mercy of God. The apostles recognised their nothingness but they did not keep it to themselves, saved by the love of Christ they cast it out on the “other side”, His side; indeed, like Peter and the nets, they cast themselves on the side of divine mercy.
“Mary has chosen the better part”! The part where Jesus and his Mother and God's mercy are found; it is here that our life undergoes the essential conversion to a life of pure mercy! This was understood by Saint Augustine who sang the praises of mercy and who, as Pope Benedict XVI reminded us at Pavia, needed to undergo a “third conversion” in order to reach the other side. The Holy Father quotes: “In the meantime I came to realise that one alone is truly perfect and that the words of the Sermon on the Mount are totally achieved in one alone: in Jesus Christ himself. Instead the whole Church - all of us, including the Apostles - need to pray every day: forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us" (cfr Retract. I 19,1-3)” And the Pope comments: “Augustine had reached a higher grade of humility, not only the humility to insert his great thought into the humble faith of the Church, not only the humility to translate his great knowledge into the simplicity of proclamation, but also the humility to recognise the continual necessity for himself and for the whole pilgrim Church of the loving mercy of a God who forgives us every day; and we - he added - become like Christ, the only Perfect one, as far as this is possible, when we become like Him persons of mercy” (Benedict XVI, Pavia 22 April 2007). (Agenzia Fides 25/4/2007; righe 54, parole 862)
