“Come and have breakfast.” This is the risen Christ’s invitation to his disciples in today’s post-resurrection encounter.* Some readers of this gospel story focus on the miracle of an overabundance of fish suddenly manifesting at Jesus’ instruction where a night of fishing by his disciples had been for naught. For me the miracle is in God’s abiding presence in simple care and hospitality. We are invited to be in relationship, where we are day to day miraculously fed with an overflowing love.
Jesus recognizes the disciples’ need for food along with other human needs for shelter, security, and fruitful work. But there is more. He touches our deep desire for heartfelt belonging and inspired purpose. In Jesus’ presence empty-handedness becomes plenty. Despondency is transformed into joy. Fear and doubt are honed into courage and commitment.
It is interesting that Jesus in his resurrected glory is not now in some distant ethereal realm. He is right back where he always was when alive in an ordinary manner: inviting his disciples to a life-changing encounter with the Holy and asking them to join in the work of God’s reconciling love.
After the meal Jesus asks Simon Peter if he loves him. He asks three times. We know from an earlier gospel story that Peter had denied Jesus three times, his fear getting the best of him. That doesn’t seem to matter to Jesus now. He only wants Peter to be with him. Jesus wants to transform our broken heart into a heart given for the world. “Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep,” Jesus says as Peter tells him three times that he loves him.
The invitation here for me is to look for the risen Christ in the everyday and see the possibility of all things made new; to see in my own and another’s root vulnerability that which cries to be healed and loved; and to listen to God’s desire to be loved in all creation.
-Trish Stefanik, Overlook Retreat House at Dayspring
For reflection:
- What is your deepest need?
- To what might the risen Christ be inviting you?
