10 April 2015 - gone fishing

Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.”
They said to him, “We also will come with you.”

We don't quite get it yet. Everything is different now because you are risen. But because we don't understand we isolate the resurrection experience. We then return from it to the ordinary and daily routine of life as if these are separate and mutually exclusive realities. We go to the celebrate the Easter liturgy but then we return home and how are we different? You manifest your resurrection to us. You show us that you are living. You show us that you are powerful and that you are with us. But we isolate that and then try to return to the ordinary just like Peter and the others try to return to fishing. We can't imagine that you resurrection is enough to fill up our whole lives. But returning to daily life after this doesn't work any more. It fails to satisfy.

Jesus said to them, “Children, have you caught anything to eat?”
They answered him, “No.”

We know there is more. We have seen it. Ordinary fishing isn't enough any more. But here is the thing. We may still fish. But now we do it together with you, LORD Jesus. Your promise to be with us always really means just that. You don't simply mean you'll be with us at mass, or when when pray, or even only when we are thinking of you. You are with us always. You take us by surprise when we think we are alone and you reveal your reality to us.

So he said to them, “Cast the net over the right side of the boat
and you will find something.”
So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in
because of the number of fish.
So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.”

Our lives only work with you at the center. That is how we are made. We must not reject this stone even if all other builders discard it. We need to build our lives upon it. Only with you as the cornerstone will the structures of our lives hold together. You, Jesus are the only one in whom we find salvation. There is no other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.

When you reign over our lives there is nothing ambiguous about our motivation in anything that we do.

it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean
whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead;
in his name this man stands before you healed.

Whether you are using our hands to heal a paralytic or helping us to fish we do all things "in the name of Jesus Christ". We do all things in the only name by which we are to be saved. We do mighty deeds in your name. But we do not leave you and return to living our ordinary lives in our own names. We fish in your name. We do everything in your name, LORD Jesus, because you promise to be with us always.

Today, right now, here in the ordinary, you remind us: always means always.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
Let the house of Israel say,
“His mercy endures forever.”