Friday Octave of Easter 2012 - Jesus Prepares Breakfast On The Beach

Scripture readings for today's Mass are here

The beautiful image below is one of my favourite images of Jesus on the shoreline looking out to sea and waiting for the disciples to return from their fishing trip.

It is by Kristin Serafini.

Jesus even has a a bunch of goodies he has prepared for a Resurrection breakfast!!



My comment this year is the same as last year....

Imagine Jesus cooking a meal for you on the beach !! How perfect is that ?...... to which I'll add a prayer that when I die and if I'm lucky not to be sent to hell, and if I get out of purgatory, please God, I really don't want to have to go there either ; IF...... by the grace of God I am allowed into heaven, then this is how I would like to meet Jesus.

There will be a meal of fish and bread, and maybe some chips too and fruit like it is in the picture, and afterwards a swim, and I won't have to worry about getting cramp after a meal and the danger of drowning afterwards, because it is heaven and there won't be cramp in heaven. 


Donegal

I can imagine all the restlessness, longings and inadequacies will no longer be there in that infinite sea of heaven- to be totally immersed in God along with all of creation. 

While I am alive I can only get hints of divine and eternal realities.












All of creation is in a finite form and yet we all bear the image of God and have a  means of getting in touch with the infinite love of God through the Eucharist and through God's creation and any number of ways that usually involve forgetting self !

Kristin Serafina's painting of Jesus on the shore reminds me that Jesus is waiting on me to bring home the fish.

Will I manage one hundred and fifty three or would Jesus be just as pleased if I gave Him only one !



The only time I ever went fishing was as a teenager from a boat off the shore of Rathmullan harbour in County Donegal, Ireland.

My father was born in Donegal and we used to spend many blissful summer holidays there.






  

Rathmullan, County Donegal and Lough Swilly Source


 
I caught a mackerel but was so horrified at being confronted with a live wriggling fish hauled out of it's natural environment, that I couldn't  bring myself to knock it on the head, so I took it off the hook with the help of my uncle and let it back into the sea.
I still eat fish caught by other fishermen. There must be a deeper meaning in that somewhere.  Maybe not. 








Maybe I'm the fish that needs knocking on the head and that reminds me that is what resurrection means : - that I have to die before I get a new life and it involves getting hurt !

Author Margaret Silf, in her book of Grace Filled Days 2012 ( Loyola Press), has a lovely astute reflection on this part of the Gospel below:

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

She says : 

"Sometimes the smallest adjustment in our point of view- moving from one side of the boat to the other - can make a huge difference in our vision. 
And sometimes it takes an unexpected stranger on the shore to shift our 
perspective." 

How true !!


The video is from today's Gospel of John .

Some people prefer to read the script but it's nice to have a variety of choices

 

Gospel Jn 21:1-14

Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias.
He revealed himself in this way.

Together were Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus,
Nathanael from Cana in Galilee,
Zebedee's sons, and two others of his disciples.



Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing."


They said to him, "We also will come with you."


So they went out and got into the boat,
but that night they caught nothing.
All images below by James Tissot.

When it was already dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore;
but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.




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

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."
When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord,
he tucked in his garment, for he was lightly clad,
and jumped into the sea.




The other disciples came in the boat,
for they were not far from shore, only about a hundred yards,
dragging the net with the fish.


When they climbed out on shore,
they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread.





Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish you just caught."


So Simon Peter went over and dragged the net ashore
full of one hundred fifty-three large fish.



Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.
Jesus said to them, "Come, have breakfast."

And none of the disciples dared to ask him, "Who are you?"
because they realized it was the Lord.

Jesus came over and took the bread and gave it to them,
and in like manner the fish.

This was now the third time Jesus was revealed to his disciples
after being raised from the dead.

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