Risen Mercy

View the readings for this Sunday

Sunday, May 5, 2019, Third Sunday of Easter

Acts 5:27-32, 40B-41
Ps 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-12, 13
Rev 5:11-14
Jn 21:1-19


In the Gospel reading this weekend, Simon Peter and several apostles are fishing on the Sea of Tiberius when the Risen Christ appears. At first, though, they do not realize it's Jesus.

Knowing that they hadn't caught a single fish all night, Jesus calls out to them and tells them to cast their net on the other side of the boat. Having nothing to lose, they do as Jesus suggests. Suddenly, their net becomes so full they can hardly pull it in.

This is when it dawns on Peter. "It is the Lord," he says (Jn 21:27). Immediately, Peter jumps into the sea and swims to the Lord who is cooking over a fire on the shore. Jesus beckons them all to have breakfast with Him. The Gospel says, "[N]one of the disciples dared to ask him, 'Who are you?' because they realized it was the Lord" (Jn 21:12).

Often when we least expect it, Jesus makes Himself known to us in such a powerful way that we don't even question whether He's with us. Other times, usually in the midst of suffering, we question Christ's power and wonder if He abandoned us.

When Jesus was arrested, He was just as physically present to His disciples as He was in this Gospel reading. But during that difficult time, instead of running toward Jesus, His apostles ran away. Questioning Christ's power to rise again, Simon Peter thrice denied even knowing Jesus.

But our abandonment of Jesus does not drive Him away from us. Though our sinfulness ultimately killed Christ, He rose from the dead just to minister His mercy to us even still.

In her Diary, St. Faustina records the following words of Jesus: "Let the sinner not be afraid to approach Me. The flames of mercy are burning Me - clamoring to be spent; I want to pour them out ..." (50).

So, when Jesus makes His presence known to us, He does not want us to run away in fear. Least of all, He doesn't want us to question His power. But like Peter in this Gospel, He wants us to go to Him as quickly as we can, receive His loving mercy, and tell Him over and over how much we love Him in return.

View the previous Sunday Scripture Preview.

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