April 22, 2007
by Fr Tim Kelly
Theme; we must add our bread and our fish to the divine fire
Patristic Influence: Augustine’s Tractate 123, 2 Piscis assus Christus est passus (The fish being roasted is Christ having suffered.)
My dear Friends in the Lord Jesus, Christ is Risen Allelluia!!!
?There are seven disciples at the shore. Seven disciples are present. Augustine tells us that the number speaks about the fact that we are all on that shore with Christ, that all the Church is eating with the Risen Lord. This number is a sign of fullness or completeness. Augustine says “By that number of disciples, seven, by which in this place our universality can be understood to have been represented.” Therefore the apparition is a presage of the end-times. This meal on the lake shore is a pre-figuration of the eschatological banquet.
In the wonderful breakfast scene in John 21 we are introduced to Christ the cook. Christ has already been the healer and the wonderworker and the Shepherd. Here in John 21, the Risen Christ is the great provider, the one who finds the fish for his disciples and then cooks the fish for them. This sign tells us that as he comes closer to the return to His father in Heaven, Christ gathers his seven disciples, that is, the entire Church on the edge of the world. Here we are gathered with Jesus to be fed from his kitchen, to be given what he has so freely. And what is it that the Risen Christ can give out without measure but grace. This is an image of divine grace given out in abundance by Christ to his Church.
Maybe it is also significant that Christ is having a breakfast for us all on that seashore. Christ is going away and you might wonder why it is not therefore an evening meal. But the breakfast is the first meal of the new creation, a foretaste of things to come in the heaven where the saved can now go.
But this image of a bountiful Christ is stalled in its tracks when Christ turns to Peter and instructs him to put some fish on the fire. The food is provided firstly by Jesus; “When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread.” The initial food must be added to by the offerings of the disciples. Their fishing had yielded nothing until Jesus was the master of the enterprise. Then they caught plenty of fish. But it is essential that the first food is provided by Jesus. The analogy here is that the disciples will be provided for by the bread of the Eucharist so that they can do the ministry assigned to them in teaching the gospel. They must always seek nourishment in Christ’s food first and not in the fruits of their own labor.
But Christ says to Peter “Bring here some of the fish that you have caught.” (John 21;10.) The disciples are told that the world must be fed with grace from God, but that they themselves are to add to the gifts which the Church will offer the world. Christ gives his bread and fishes to feed the world, but we Christians must add our own alms and gifts to the fire. Then we can make a New Jerusalem, the new City where God will dwell among men. And that can happen in this place. You can turn around the direction of your own home by your own decisions. You can turn off the TV if you decide to do so. You can create a Christian city in your house, but you will have to add your free decisions to God’s Grace to achieve that. You ask me how we can change things in the public forum. Go out and vote. Join a community association and insist on good public policy. Go to ISD meetings and say why you are unhappy that there is no prayer in the schools. Tell the folks who make rules that you expect them to make rules which are moral. Write to your politicians and express your dissatisfaction at how education is done or any other issue that you feel strongly about. Put your fish and your bread into the fire so that the world will be better fed with good ideas and noble thoughts.
These are hard times for the faint-hearted. These are glorious days for that barking dog, the cynic. The great experiment called the United States of America was really a religious experiment, a trial as to whether rational men and women could live in harmony without dictators. Could human beings behave responsibly in freedom? Can the world survive without kings and oppressive regimes? The cynic sneers at such an idea, claiming that freedom and human nature will only combine to destroy each other. Yet the purpose of this country in the world is top prove that human life is sacred and noble. The very reason that this country is so special is that it truly attempts to regain the dignity of Paradise, the dignity of a holy people who love God and each other.
Remember the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
“In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea.
With a glory in His bosom, that transfigures you and me
As he died to make men holy, let us fight to make men free.
His truth is marching on”
In these days of doubt and tragedy, we must add our fish and our bread to the divine fire. Christ asks us to make a difference in the world, not to be passive observers of decline, but to be co-creators with him of the New Jerusalem. The command of Jesus to Peter is a command to us all to be active in shaping our own society in the model of love and forgiveness which Christ shows us.
I can do better than quote my countryman, Bishop John Ireland of St. Paul Minnesota who was a champion of a different and new approach to Catholicism here in the New World. He said at the first Catholic Congress of the Laity in 1889, "the laity are not anointed in confirmation to the end that they must save their souls and pay the pew rent. They must think, work, organize, read, speak out as circumstances demand ... In America in the present age, lay action is particularly needed for the Church."