Co-workers in an apron, on a little boat

Jn 21:1-19 (1-25)

 

The same sign of the superabundant fishing in Lk 5:1-11 does not concern the story of the Church after Easter, but is even placed on the day when Jesus invites the first disciples to follow him to become "fishers" of men.

The prodigy of the Vocation expands the believer's journey in Christ and affects every experience we can have of the Risen One in our ordinary work - and what Mission is entrusted to us in order to experience Him Alive.

The Church is not composed of phenomena, but of a stubborn and eager leader [Peter]. Some are in and out [Thomas], others remain tied to the past [Nathanael], and there is no shortage of fanatics [the sons of Zebedee]; hence the anonymous, that is, all of us.

Peter realises that before giving orders, he must do and expose himself: if so, the others, although insubordinate, will decide spontaneously (v.3), expanding their lives.

But without the torch of the Word, no result. Following Peter is not enough and saves no one.

Here is Jesus: on the shore of the ultimate condition he calls us and leads the way, he leads the way, and he is finally Light - the Dawn.

 

The net must be cast from the "right side" (v.6), that is, from the good side!

To pull people up from the abysses of polluted waters and billows of death to a possibility of respite or self-esteem and full life, one must begin and aim for the best in each, bring out the good that is always there.

Reminder for us. Every culture possesses many qualities: let us build on them, instead of approaching women and men, ethnic groups or situations, by highlighting limitations and problems.

So the Peter - each community leader - must have no preconceptions, but take off the cassock of a group leader and put on the apron of a servant [v.7: the Greek verb is that of the washing of feet].

For a work that gives results according to God (love) one must wear the same robe as Christ - the only badge: the robe of one who does not give orders, but receives them.

This is the trait of the authentic Church - nothing big: it does not arrive on an ocean liner, but on a "little boat" [v.8 Greek text].

And it remains small: like a little leaven, to embrace all.

 

Despite the difficulties in believing, the disciples are constituted as heralds of the news of God favourable to humanity that intends to travel towards itself - without the baggage of the overwhelming accumulations of manner.

For communion with God and the brethren, in the journey of life and the sense of rebirth that lurks therein [e.g. after pain, travails, experiences of rejection, thoughts of failure and death...]. Jesus had brought out the transmutative capacities already endowed to each person.

His proposal had superseded the oppressive yoke of the external perfections preached by religion, replaced precisely with our simple family virtues, grasped from within. Not: to fight, but to welcome. Not: obey, but resemble. And so on.

The church was not to become an ethical communion of saints, but of sinners and unbelievers. The story of the unbelieving apostles comforts us: we are already empowered, and with aptitude for fullness. But in its reversal.

It is the resurrection that sends us among men, precisely to be regenerated; just like us. So the condition of apostle is not subjected to the usual doctrinal, moralistic, customary, and religious rigmarole; it does not take long to be assumed.

Although self-belief remains fragile, we continually experience resurrection from our rubble - raising or at best regenerating the entire organism of the spirit, and the inner universe.

All this shapes a different consciousness of inadequacy: that in Faith - only positive, because it understands its brothers. He recognises them in the depths of himself, and in this way he knows how to justify the resistance to the Announcement.

For it is in the recovery of opposing sides and the synergy of contradictions that we have become - in our own - experts in difficulty. More able to grasp discomforts; even the feeling of feeling emptied, which sooner or later will give way to reversal; happy unseen.

Then we learnt to listen to emotions: the feeling of being overwhelmed - even in ideas. And the need to grasp and lose ourselves in pains, absurd or unbearable. Dignified sides; faces of ourselves.

In short, for the purpose of vocational fulfilment, everyone is already 'perfect'.

In his load of dissimilar energies, he only has to learn to meet the reliefs of himself that he has not yet made room for.

As if within us we have a multiplicity of aspects, often all to be discovered, behind some shell that resists - which complete us and infallibly guide us to personal and social flowering.

 

Thus in the exodus we move from death-resurrection experience to true witness - in the spontaneous frankness of being empowered as evangelisers.

Which surprises us. But now the Message becomes our own.

It becomes a call for peace, but an explosive one - unbelievable, and we can see this more from the limits (now nothing to fear) than from the skill, or the external style, the ability to set up sententious cathedrals and showcases.

After Christ, there is no longer any need to 'improve' in the common sense - nor any expectation, or purpose, that they look to and drink from the fountain of what has already been said by others [in the past, or for fashion], which then puts them back in the same predictable situation as always.

For the shaky apostles, consensus, ancient or glamorous religion, identification, were the denial of themselves in the heart.

Conversely, the Calling by Name became the development of what each one was deep inside and had not given himself, manipulating himself.

Road of self-realisation, also in the contribution to the brothers. Also not intimately dissociated.

The only convincing weapon, genuineness - burning within to make us shrines, unconscious and incomplete but living.

Contemplative and in action. The only way to meet souls.

 

We are collaborators of the apron, to dialogue with those in need of recovery, in whatever whirlwind or peripheral condition they find themselves.

Therefore, 'to shepherd' (vv.15-17) means to precede and nourish, not to command.

Those who lead must be a sign of a God who is not fed up or repentant.

Loving and inviting face of the One who is able to amaze and set Simon on his feet. The chief apostle, who had been called to freedom and had chosen the condition of lackey [cf. Jn 21:9; with the "fire of embers" in Jn 18:18].

 

At the end of a game of re-proposals, in the dialogue with Simon himself - "of John" because he is still spiritually a pupil of the Baptist (!) - it is Jesus who is "satisfied" with a love of friendship [cf. Greek text] by modifying the double question "do you love me?" with the third: "do you love me?".

Human love waits for a minimum of satisfaction, it is not able to configure itself in pure loss - it waits for something, at least a nod of approval and gratitude.

No acknowledgement? Then it is the strongest that yields.

'To wait' is the infinitive of the verb 'to love', because it allows one to be born again.

Human feeling is in a hurry: it regulates its conduct on the basis of the success or perfections of the beloved.

Divine Love recuperates; it helps one to become another 'person', in the round - it does not break the understanding.

His Calling is not tied to merit or performance: even through works, saying 'I love you' is (unfortunately not infrequently) a fatuous declaration.

Or a sincere expression, but often animated by enthusiasm without deep roots, which upon subsequent proof of the facts transforms the oath of fidelity into a fragile and uncertain sentiment.

It is the awareness of one's own unrepresentability gratuitously redeemed and transformed into the ground of absurd confidence, which turns self-assumption into apostolate!

This is why Jesus asks Peter to begin by starting with the little ones of the flock (v.15).

And "to shepherd" (vv.15.17) or "to shepherd" (v.16) means "to feed": to nourish, to care for, to protect, to favour; to initiate, to risk in the first person, to defend and to put one's face into it - not "to command".

To nurture is to make oneself present, in a continuous of references. It is this climate that convinces, educates, feeds and sustains, allowing it to grow and flourish.

 

"To 'feed' is [precisely] not to dominate, but to feed the ideal. And to begin with the tiny flock (v.15).

In short, in order to ensure the 'happy' outcome, the true believer, the friend of the Lord, the child of God, does not ally himself with people who count, then we shall see.

Nor must he 'fish' for proselytes, but rather expand and cheer life.

The fullness of the 'result' is the Happiness of each and every real person - as they are - not as they 'should be' according to established opinion.

In fact, Jesus does not ask Peter: are you a good administrator? are you a good organiser? are you a skilful entertainer? are you equipped, intelligent, cunning and introduced enough to stand up to your adversaries?

 

So God's 'enemy' is not uncertainty or sin - obsession that breeds the unbalanced - but the pursuit of the 'average life'. Mire where one does not throw oneself.

 

[A reflection for the Scoutmaster reads: "Remember, Scoutmaster: if you slow down, they stop; if you yield, they back off; if you sit down, they lie down. If you walk forward, they will overtake you; if you give your hand, they will give their skin"].

 

 

To internalise and live the message:

 

Are you an envoy or a mere admirer?

What is your personal Source?

What is the Source of your relationships?

And the root of all faithfulness and generosity that draws you, and shows you?

 

 

Total love and not

 

The school of faith is not a triumphal march, but a journey strewn with suffering and love, trials and faithfulness to be renewed every day. Peter, who had promised absolute faithfulness, knows the bitterness and humiliation of denial: the swaggerer learns humility to his cost. Peter too must learn to be weak and in need of forgiveness. When his mask finally falls off and he realises the truth of his weak heart as a believing sinner, he bursts into a liberating cry of repentance. After this weeping he is now ready for his mission.

On a spring morning, this mission will be entrusted to him by the risen Jesus. The meeting will take place on the shores of Lake Tiberias. It is the evangelist John who relates to us the dialogue that takes place between Jesus and Peter on that occasion. There is a very significant play on verbs. In Greek, the verb "filéo" expresses the love of friendship, tender but not all-encompassing, while the verb "agapáo" means love without reserve, total and unconditional. Jesus asks Peter the first time: "Simon... do you love me (agapâs-me)" with this total and unconditional love (cf. Jn 21:15)? Before the experience of betrayal the Apostle would certainly have said: "I love you (agapô-se) unconditionally". Now that he has known the bitter sadness of infidelity, the drama of his own weakness, he says with humility: "Lord, I love you (filô-se)", that is, "I love you with my poor human love". Christ insists: "Simon, do you love me with this total love that I want?". And Peter repeats the answer of his humble human love: "Kyrie, filô-se", "Lord, I love you as I know how to love". At the third time Jesus only says to Simon: "Fileîs-me?", "do you love me?". Simon understands that Jesus only needs his poor love, the only love of which he is capable, and yet he is saddened that the Lord had to say this to him. He therefore answers him: "Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you (filô-se)". One might say that Jesus adapted himself to Peter, rather than Peter to Jesus! It is precisely this divine adaptation that gives hope to the disciple, who has known the suffering of infidelity. Hence the confidence that makes him capable of following until the end: "This he said to indicate by which death he would glorify God. And having said this he added: "Follow me"" (Jn 21:19).

From that day on Peter "followed" the Master with the precise awareness of his own frailty; but this awareness did not discourage him. In fact, he knew he could count on the Risen One's presence beside him. From the naive enthusiasm of his initial adhesion, passing through the painful experience of denial and the weeping of conversion, Peter came to entrust himself to that Jesus who adapted himself to his poor capacity for love. And so he also shows us the way, despite all our weakness. We know that Jesus adapts himself to our weakness. We follow him, with our poor capacity for love, and we know that Jesus is good and accepts us.

(Pope Benedict, General Audience 24 May 2006)

 

 

The uniqueness of the Seed and the personalisation of the Gospel

(Jn 21:20-25)

 

Once again in the fourth Gospel, the Petrine step and character (uncertain) are confronted with that of the disciple loved by the Lord.

In him too, we are called to a loose and liberal personality (more typical of the Johannine communities of Asia Minor) that reflects a less rigid and prophetically superior spirit than the official apostolic church - still Judaizing.

The early Christians looked forward to the so-called Second Coming of the Lord.

Some churches, faced with the death of followers, began to imagine that at least some of them would survive until the Parousia of Christ.

With the passage of time and the death not only of the apostles, but also of second and third generation disciples, disagreements arose over the precedence and interpretation of the Scriptures.

All this, despite the fact that Jn insisted both on the ever-present Presence of the Risen One (and historicity of the Life of the Eternal One) and on the actuality of the ultimate realities and of the Judgment. Conversely, the idea of their futurity remained widespread.

The death of the Evangelist himself shook the communities not a little, disconcerting many believers who imagined that disciple should - at least he - be present at the so-called 'Return' (a term that in the Gospels - in the original language - does not exist).

This is the reason for the addition of a second conclusion to Jn 20:30-31: what we designate "Chapter 21" - a work of the Johannine school, which attempts to clarify the Lord's Nearness, the meaning of the "Manifestations" of the Risen One, the service of authority, the testimony of the "beloved disciple".

 

The fullness of God shines through the whole Church, if genuine. Vocations are different. None in itself is sufficient.

Each one hears the Call to pursue one's Call by Name according to character: step by step, but without stalling in confrontation.

The opinion, affair or curiosity of others is poison for the Mission. 

Beware, therefore, of hearsay and widespread opinion, especially in situations of cultural monopoly (as is still the case in Italy): it would lead to homologation, "average life" and collapse.

Beware of comparisons: "Me, follow" (v.22 Greek text) means adhering to a Heaven that inhabits each child (in communion, not in a herd).

To each energy, history and sensitivity corresponds an unrepeatable way of being a disciple. No one is a superior model or a facsimile: love erupts in a personal way, always free and unprecedented.

The way of discipleship pointed out and the indeterminate remaining or holding back are correlative and mouldable characteristics or polarities, from which unexpected answers to true questions arise, and the Newness of God.

Differences and ties are recomposed in the Spirit, who knows where to go - calling each singular personality to dimensions of collected or extroverted existence... in its own root.

Those who are driven more to action (or reflection) must not linger, nor turn back; rather, immerse themselves. Each one is in the right place. He must not lose the unique path.

 

In my garden I have some big pines that provide shade, but one of them suddenly dried up irreparably. It looked like who knows what, in an instant it crashed; unbelievable. It also happens in religious life.

Among my country grass, I notice several small plants blooming - without ever having tended them - which, without artifice, chase away insects, offering the ground a variegated texture and a delicate colour spectacle.

If I imposed on the undergrowth to grow to provide shade, it would become diseased, and the whole thing would not even become a bramble: an unnatural interweaving of inconveniences (imposed of my own accord) that would never fade.

Each seed corresponds to its own development and uniqueness, also in relation to the different situation around it (in the light or otherwise). In short, authentic love has unrepeatable, personal, unprecedented foundations.

It is said that St. Anthony Abbot pondered the Last Judgement (who is saved and who is not?). The answer came to him peremptorily: "Anthony, look after yourself!" - to say that interest in the inclinations and preferences of others is ambiguous. Not always good; sometimes useless. Often fatal and deadly.

If someone is offered as a gift a vocation of special charity - even of blood - others are offered a different kind of unrepeatable witness; e.g. sapiential or critical martyrdom (of the opposed and pioneers).

Even in the life of the Church, instead of losing the character of one's Calling by Name (allowing oneself to be overwhelmed by the overbearing forces in the field), it is spontaneous to proclaim another kingdom than that of the single thought, of consensus, of the clever people in the quarters. They have nothing to do with the Vocation.

We must not be distracted from our natural and innate spiritual purpose. The mystery that envelops Christ unfolded in his People is inexhaustible, and we too are called in the first person to fearlessly write a distinctive Gospel (v.25; cf. Jn 20:29-30).

The difference between religiosity and Faith? We are not photocopies of persistent conduct, but inventors and outriders. Christ wants to be reinterpreted in the first person and in the conviviality of differences.

Each person is recognised by the Master as acting.

Instead, we often sit in external armour, and perhaps even measure the life project and the Mystery of the brothers with the same myopia of commensurate programmes.

God reserves the right to point this out to each one.

 

Then, too, the 'stabilities' are partial, they await fulfilment: those who bet on the Path of Faith know that they must move away from the spirit of one-sidedness. (The same vigour of the path calls for quiet stillness and convergence. Even 'staying' finally throws its own quiet energy at initiatives...).

The ways of following that resonate deep within the soul are as varied as the people, the events, the commensurate rhythms, the ages.

They embrace the same Proposal - without losing the enduring Mystery or any connection in such versatility.

Only here do Real World, Person, Nature and Eternity come together.

 

"When the weaver raises one foot, the other lowers. When the movement ceases and one of the feet stops, the weaving stops. His hands throw the bobbin that passes from one to the other; but no hand can hope to hold it. Like the weaver's gestures, it is the union of opposites that weaves our lives'.

(African Peul oral tradition)

 

 

To internalise and live the message:

 

What Gospel do you feel you have to write with your life?