Holyrood Church 715 West 179 Street, Upper West side Manhattan, USA, 212-923-3770

I am left with the image of Jesus preparing breakfast for his friends

 

 

Good morning, happy Friday, and many blessings.

 

Have you ever considered returning to your old ways because Jesus’s presence seemed distant? This is the story in today’s Gospel: John 21:1-14. This darkness felt and known as spiritual abandonment affected even Peter who despite previously seeing Jesus Glorified returned to fishing as a weakened disciple. Yet, Peter begins to recognize Jesus’s complete forgiveness (despite his denial) filling him spiritually and precisely with numerous fish (no doubt as a metaphor for Graces) without breaking the net. We can receive our own and share in Peter’s abundance, fully energized as disciples; to do and be as Jesus would like us to.

 

The Risen Jesus meets his friends as they returned to their life as fishermen. They find him close to them as they go about their work. He makes it bear abundant fruit, precisely when they felt they had labored a whole night in vain. I ask to be able to encounter the Risen Lord, and that my work will bear abundant fruit through his presence.

 

I stay with the image of Jesus cooking breakfast for his friends. As if he had nothing better to do: couldn’t he go to the Temple to address the crowds, or on Calvary to show them he was alive, so that they believe in him? He chooses to spend time in intimate contact with his friends, preparing them for their mission after his departure, giving them a strong experience of his closeness. Do I give enough time to develop my relationship with Jesus, or am I too busy doing ‘good things’ for him?

 

Come and have breakfast’ How simply and sensitively Jesus deals with us! He knows our needs and our hunger. He knows too that we can only manage the revelations of the divine in small portions. I could do well before my daily breakfast to listen to the Lord speaking my name and saying, ‘Come and have breakfast.’ Imagine him serving me, if not with bread and fish, perhaps with a muffin and coffee! I notice that through the day he continues to serve me what I need.

 

I wonder, how does Peter feel in this scene? Somewhere in the back of his mind he sensed where that catch of fish had come from. Surely now his heart breaks open in repentant love when he is treated so kindly by the person he had betrayed? Am I open to God’s kindly care which picks me gently up when I have fallen?

 

Jesus, you meet me at the water’s edge of my ordinary life. You accept me lovingly, you encourage me, you invite me to abundance. Nourished by the food of your word, warmed by the fire of your unfailing love, may I in turn nourish, heal, and love those I meet today.

 

Blessings,

 

Fr. Luis+

Date news: 
Friday, April 9, 2021 - 09:30

Ministry at the time of Coronavirus (Covid 19): Prevent, cure and accompany

Now we have to shape what some have started calling; The Church at Home. Although I keep asking myself; What do those who do not have a home do? For this reason, at the same time, I am declaring today in our Holyrood Church a Lenten day of prayer, fasting and reading the Bible in the Time of the Coronavirus.

facebook youtube instagram mail zelle