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05 mag 2019
05/05/2019 – 3rd Sunday of Easter - C

05/05/2019 – 3rd Sunday of Easter - C

Reading 1, ACTS 5,27-32.40-41 * Psalm 29 * Reading 2, REV 5,11-14 * Gospel, JN 21,1-19

Saint John is telling us what he heard in the visions he had in Patmos during the captivity due to his faith. These are angels’ songs and songs of all the creatures that glorify the Lord Jesus. He is called “the Lamb that was slain”. The most beautiful and precious act of love of His in fact is not the miracles, but His sacrifice, His offering Himself to the Father, having accepted to die on the cross for us. We then sing to Him thankfully. We join the angels and all creatures in order to give Him all glory and blessings, every strength and honor. Believers can only expect to be persecuted by powerful men, because they reject Jesus, they have nailed Him to the cross and they still do not want to hear talking about Him.

The story in the first reading makes us see how the rejection bringing Jesus on the cross leads the apostles to prison, but also how happy they are to be treated in the same way as their Master and Lord. They do not let themselves be scared by men's threats. They have received a spirit of fortitude and courage, of joy and ability to give testimony.

From where are these news coming for the disciples' and the Apostles' life? For sure from their encounter with the Risen Jesus. The gospel is telling us about one of the Lord’s apparitions to seven disciples. The moment is very particular. They are back in Galilee; it looks almost like they are ready to go back to their old life. Peter, in fact, goes out to fish in the lake. He does it without having received a task from Jesus; the others join him. Don’t they know what else to do? The good thing is that they are all together and they work together. Their work however is useless. All night without catching anything! This might seem a punishment..., because they did not wait for Jesus to instruct them, but the Lord rewards them because they are united, and are obedient. In fact, they obey even if they do not recognize Him, and even if obeying seems useless to them. Humbly, they accept the order coming from a stranger, and they cast the nets again. Their humble obedience is rewarded with a catch really amazing, but even more with the fact that they can recognize in that stranger their Lord! Peter, jumping in the water, shows his love, and then he makes the effort to bring all that fish to Him, or more precisely the net full of “one hundred fifty-three large fish”. The event shocked them so much that they have even checked the number of fish! And the evangelist has understood that the number represents all the peoples of the world. The net does not break, even if it gathers around Jesus so many nations! That net, everyone can understand it, represents the Church, that can bring to the Lord cultures and races so different, but, despite this, all characterized by the same love for Him.

The disciples understand that they will need to be united and obedient, they will have to look for the presence of Jesus before choosing their activity. They will stay together, will eat together, with Jesus! And by staying with Him, by receiving the food from His hands and His Love, they will receive a spirit of unity, the spirit that gives glory to Him and that defends from the Evil that keeps apart. This event is in preparation for what happens later: Jesus could see the humility, therefore He can trust them and He can give them important tasks in His kingdom.

When the disciples have eaten, Jesus turns to Peter with a question He has never asked anyone else. He repeats it in order to point out its importance, and, maybe, in order to make us feel like it is addressed to us too. He does not ask Peter, and He does not ask me, if I have understood all His teachings, nor if I remember everything He said. He does not even ask Peter if he is sorry, but only if he loves Him, if he gives Him selfless love! Three times He asks him: “Do you love me?”. He waited until this moment to ask a disciple this question! Before the passion, love for Him could have been confused with love for human glory, prestige, success, that is to say self-love. Now that Jesus has been rejected by the great ones and He has passed through the cross, love for Him cannot be confused any more.

Do you love me?”. This question, the Lord is asking the first of the disciples, is addressed to me as well. It is repeated three times, but with growing depth. He is asking for an obedient love, obedient to Him and not influenced by others; He is asking for true love, a true giving of the life, an exclusive love, and free from personal interests, a love made of sincere friendship, that can only come from a poor heart: only the poor can be a strong and faithful friend of Jesus’. Peter takes the test with true humility, always repeating: “Lord, you know that…”, so much so that Jesus understands He can give him the most demanding and necessary task in His kingdom. It is the same test that will have to take everyone who receives any small or big ecclesiastical service. Love, made of listening and obedience is also the praise that goes from our life to the Lamb slain for us! Even in a moment of difficulty, even when someone is judging us or condemning us, and when the temptation of being divided among brothers shows up, love will make us faithful