The Easter season is here to say our failures do not have the last word; Christ’s victorious love does.

Homily on John 21:1-19. Third Sunday of Easter. April 18th, 2010

Today we read the wonderful account of Jesus’ appearance to the apostles at the shore of the Sea of Galilee. This account is a real turning point in the apostles’ love for Jesus. Even though they had seen the risen Jesus twice, they still didn’t know what they should be doing and so they return to Galilee. Eventually, they would know and understand fully their mission, but that would come later on the day of Pentecost. But for now, in the mean time, they would go back to what is natural to them; in other words, they go fishing…sounds good to me…
We hear however; how these experienced fishermen after spending all night, didn’t catch a thing. There is an important message here; first they couldn’t really go back to a normal life after their true encounter with the Risen Jesus, they just were not the same men as they were before and never would be. But an even more important message is that in their new mission, their natural abilities would no longer be enough.
These professional fishermen, without Jesus, could not even catch fish on a natural level…they failed; their natural effort and skill was not enough, they needed Jesus’ help. And so if they needed Jesus to succeed even on a natural level of catching fish, how much more do they need Him to catch fish on a supernatural level, that is to catch the souls of men in order to lead them to love of Him.
At dawn, Jesus appears on the shore, but interestingly the apostles do not notice him. They are in the midst of their ordinary routine and so don’t expect the Risen Christ to appear in the ordinary. How often have we made the same mistake?..... Unrecognized, Jesus asks them if they had caught anything- they have to admit their failure honestly- “No,” they yelled back. And so, Jesus calls them to cast their nets off the right side of the boat. Where before they were unable to catch fish, but now at the command of Jesus, the apostles cast their nets into the deep. Perhaps they thought they had nothing to loose- but the power of God working through them, suddenly puts 153 fish in the nets (represents. With their success, the disciples began to learn that they had to rely on Jesus rather than their own power in everything, even on the natural level.
St. John, because he loves Jesus with a pure love, recognizes Jesus first and tells Peter, “It is the Lord.” At these words, Peter recognizes Jesus as well and without hesitation (for love never hesitates) Peter jumps into the water and swims to Jesus. After finishing the breakfast Jesus had prepared for them, Jesus while next to the fire begins to question Peter in a way reminiscent to how Peter was questioned in Jerusalem when before another fire he denied Jesus. A three fold denial at night is now to be atoned for by a three fold profession of love in the day. There is however, even more going on here however, than meets the eye. Our English translation of the Bible has missed an important element in this passage. If one could read it in the original Greek it would be much clearer.
In Greek there are four different words for love. Two of these words are used here. The first word is philia, which is a brotherly love, or a natural, human love. The second word is agape. Agape is more than natural human love, it is a sacrificial love, in which one lays down one’s life for one’s brother or friend. The New Testament writers used Agape in a new way in order to describe, a natural human love which is elevated to a Supernatural level. With agape love a man can actually love his brother and his God not merely with a human love, but also with the very love of God alive in his heart, in other words with a divine love. Agape is human love infused and elevated to the supernatural level or to the divine level; this is known as Charity, to love God and to love one’s brother with both a human and a divine love, to love one's brother with God's own love alive in one's heart.
And so Jesus begins. “Peter, son of John, do you agape love me; that is do you love me with a supernatural divine love, in which your give me your all, even your life?” Now Peter, perhaps still with the image in his mind of that penetrating gaze of Jesus given to him after denying Jesus, was not about to make the same mistake twice. Remember Peter at the Last Supper impetuously said, “Lord I will follow you even to the death. And yet when it came down to it, Peter failed to even admit he knew Jesus.” Peter had learned the hard way that alone He could not love Jesus with an agape love. And so Peter responds reservedly, “Yes, Lord, you know I philia love you, that is I love you with merely a natural human kind of love.”
And so Jesus asks Him again, “Peter son of John do you agape, love me?” Again Peter, again responds reservedly, “Yes, Lord you know that I philia, Love you.” And finally Jesus asks Peter, “Peter, Son of John, do you philia love me?” That is, you even love me with a natural human love?” Peter was of course distressed; some translations say, “cut to the quick” because Jesus questions whether Peter even loves him with a natural human kind of love.
With this question Peter realizes that without Jesus, not only is it impossible for him to agape, that is to love supernaturally—divinely, but it is also impossible for him even to love with a natural human love. In other words, Peter learned that we need Jesus to help us love authentically, to love as we have been created to love. We are made to be fully human, and to be fully human means to love not only with a natural human love, a philia love, but to love with an agape love, that is to love with God’s love alive in us.
We have been created for Divine love and to love divinely is to love fully human, to love the way for which we have been made. And so if we don’t love with God’s divine love alive in us, not only can we not love divinely, we cannot even love with a true human love, we cannot love fully human, we cannot therefore be fully human.
Our world thinks that it can somehow be fully human without Jesus Christ; it is sadly mistaken (this is what is wrong with socialism; loving and serving man without loving God and without God's love to help us). We have a fallen human nature and have lost the ability to love as we ought, as we were created to love. And as a consequence, the more we turn from God and from His commandments of love, the more we become less than human, and so the more we no longer love fully human. And so the more we become a culture of death. The more our society turns from God’s love the more we act inhumanly, the more we stop living authentically human lives.
Today, however, let us be encouraged by Peter. Peter, who had failed so miserably, by his repentance and confession, opened his heart to receive the very love of Christ and it slowly transformed him. Today’s Gospel ends with the prophecy of Peter’s martyrdom. In the end, Peter indeed would fully agape love Jesus- he would receive the grace to give his life in a sacrificial offering, in imitation of Jesus. We too, like Peter are so weak. We fail so often in love. Like Peter, we have to tell Jesus we love Him, we have to confess our failure to love Him, our sins, but confess them in order to open our hearts more fully to Jesus and to His love for us.
The Easter season is here to say our failures do not have the last word; Christ’s victorious love does. At Holy Mass we can receive this victorious love of Jesus in the holy Eucharist. The Eucharist contains the depths of the very Love of God, for it is, "the God who is Love". With the Eucharist, we can agape love Jesus and others; without the Eucharist it is impossible!
The Eucharist is the means, the source, for us to love fully human, to love with Jesus’ divine love, in order to be able to bring others to Jesus, so that they too may experience the saving power of the Risen Jesus' love present in the Holy Eucharist. But we have to, like Peter, jump out of the boat and swim to our Risen Lord who waiting for us on the shore…that is to Jesus who is waiting for us at the sacred agape meal of the Holy Mass and in the tabernacle in order to transform us as He transformed Peter. Peter in the end did love Jesus and others with a divine love even to the point of laying down his life, being crucified upside down on a cross. Let us like Peter entrust ourselves to the love of Christ.
Let us turn to the Blessed Mother for help, she was always faithful. We have to love what the Son loves, we have to love the Virgin, she will help us to Love her Son in imitation of her.