Dear Sisters, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, the last time I preached about the passage from St John’s Gospel which we have just heard, which was three years ago, I spoke about the miraculous haul of fish and the recognition of our Lord by St John. That was the first part of this, the final chapter of the Gospel and now it is the second part that we have also just listened to which I want to speak about today in the light of the fact that it concerns St Peter and the mission given to him by Christ Himself. This is particularly appropriate in view of the forthcoming conclave to elect a new successor of St Peter which begins in Rome this coming Wednesday.
For St Peter has a unique role among the Twelve Apostles. Yet, even so, we hear about him in entirely different ways in each of the Gospels. It is St Matthew alone who tells us about the famous occasion at Caesarea Philippi where our Lord calls Simon ‘Peter’, meaning ‘the Rock’, upon whom Christ proclaims that He will build his Church. Then, only three weeks ago on Palm Sunday we heard St Luke’s dramatic account, in the Passion story, of the Last Supper during which our Lord not only foretold Peter’s threefold denial which would take place that same evening, but went on to speak of Simon Peter’s recovery from his fall into the sin of denial, and of the special role Peter would have thenceforth of ‘confirming his brothers’. Last of all, St John alone gives us this very detailed account of what took place between our Lord and St Peter after the resurrection.
We should note in the first instance that Peter, who is always first to be named among the Apostles, is clearly their leader. St John has told us that after the crucifixion, the Apostles had returned to their native Galilee. Jesus had already instructed them even before His death that they should go to Galilee where they would once again see Him after His resurrection from the dead. Moreover, St John has already told us what we heard in the last two Sunday Gospel readings, namely that our Lord had risen from the dead and had appeared to Mary Magdalene by His empty tomb, and that he had twice appeared on successive Sundays in the Upper Room where they had gathered together for safety because they feared what the authorities would do to them now that their Master had been most brutally killed. Here He had reassured them by the sight of His wounds and by the greeting ‘Peace be with you’. Here He had shown Thomas His hands and His side, and Thomas had responded by making that wonderful act of faith: ‘My Lord and my God!’
Now, some days after that second appearance in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, seven of the Apostles were back in Galilee and it was Simon Peter who led them onwards, saying to the others that he was going fishing. This is not necessarily to suggest that he was turning his back on the last three years, the time since our Lord had called him, after a miraculous draft of fish, to become a fisher of men. But apart from being our Lord’s chosen disciples, fishing was what several of those involved in this expedition had in common from their former lives. But they had already seen our Lord since His resurrection, not once but twice at least, and He had already told them both before and after His resurrection that He would go before them to Galilee where they would see Him again. So it was not a mood of sad resignation to dashed hopes that took them out to start fishing. Rather, it was probably the need to find something to do whilst they waited for the Lord to fulfil His promise that inspired that call of Simon’s to go fishing.
But there is another reason why Simon and his companions are inspired to go fishing. It is to allow an important memory to trigger them to recognize the risen Lord when He appears in yet another unfamiliar form on the seashore. He is quite far away, as the men are a hundred yards from shore, and day was only just breaking, so perhaps it is not altogether surprising that they cannot recognise Him. So when the stranger asks them ‘if they have anything to eat’ (that’s what the Greek says), they tell him no, despite working hard all night. He then tells them to cast out their nets again, but this time on the right side of the boat. This was unusual. The fishermen of Lake Tiberias, or Galilee, were used to fishing from the left side because the rudder was on the right, and they would naturally not want the net to get tangled in the rudder. So this suggestion is strange to the men in the boat, but even stranger, perhaps, is their preparedness to do as the stranger suggests. They do not even know if the stranger has any understanding of the rules of fishing, yet, probably against their better judgement, they do as he has said and lo! - a huge catch of fish which they cannot even pull into the boat but have to pull behind them as they begin to make for shore one hundred yards away. It is John who, as on Easter morning at the empty tomb, is the first to recognise the truth, crying out, ‘It is the Lord!’ John often tells us that he remembers certain things that Jesus had said or done long afterwards and saw deeper meaning in them than his companions did. On this occasion John had recalled the miraculous draft of fish some years before when they had hardly known Jesus yet. Then, too, He had met them after a long night’s fruitless fishing and had similarly instructed them to cast their nets to the other side, reassuring them that they would catch something. That was the occasion when Simon’s reaction was to say, ‘Leave me Lord, I am a sinful man’. Then Simon wanted Jesus to go away, now he can’t get to Him quickly enough as he pulls on his outer garment and springs impetuously into the sea, splashing his way to the shore to meet the Lord. On that earlier occasion, our Lord had told Simon that from then onwards he would be a fisher of men, and now He was about to do something very similar, but with another recollection in mind, a more sombre one.
But not yet. First our Lord has prepared a meal for them, with bread and fish cooked on a fire He has made. They are tired. He feeds them. He even asks them to bring some of the fish they have just caught to add to what He has already prepared, so that they can benefit from their own labour. During that meal Jesus serves them, giving them an example that they too should serve one another. John tells us that they were afraid to ask Jesus outright, ‘who are you?’ because they already knew within themselves that, despite His changed appearance, this could be no one else. It is after the meal is over that the really important matter is dealt with. Jesus has waited until now and at this chosen moment He addresses Simon by name, but with great solemnity formally adding his father’s name: ‘Simon son of John’. We and Simon Peter know that something very important is about to happen. Then our Lord puts the question, ‘Do you love me more than these?’ meaning more than these other disciples here love me. Simon answers, ‘Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.’ I am not merely saying this, he is saying, but I appeal to your own intimate knowledge of me in all my weakness. Jesus responds with a command: ‘Feed my lambs’. Then Jesus repeats the question, Simon Peter answers the same way, and Jesus slightly changes the command: ‘tend my sheep.’ Finally the third time comes the same question. Simon Peter is smitten with grief. It is not that he fears that our Lord is doubting his sincerity, but that this recalls the threefold denial before the Passion only a short time before. Then Peter had wept bitterly but had no opportunity to show his sorrow to Jesus. Now at last he can do so, but not without revisiting that threefold shame. Yet out of that terrible shame comes a new commission: to feed and tend Christ’s flock of sheep and lambs.
In the Old Testament, God had described Himself as the ‘Shepherd of Israel’, for instance in the psalms 79, ‘O shepherd of Israel, hear us!’ and 22, the well-loved ‘The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want,’ and next week in the Gospel we will hear our Lord describing Himself as ‘the Good Shepherd, who gives up His life for His sheep.’
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