Acts 5:27-32, 40-41/ Apocalypse 5:11-14/ John 21:1-19
One of the most fascinating organs that we have is our skin, although we seldom think of it as an organ.
From the top of the skull right down to the soles of our feet, our skin is like a membrane that covers our flesh.
It is rather unimaginable not to have any skin. More than just looking rather gruesome, we will die if we were skinned alive, or suffered from severe burns in the skin.
But moving away from the medical and scientific understanding of our skin, there is also a way that we use to describe the skin of a person.
We know what it means when a person is described as “thick-skinned”.
To call a person “thick-skinned” certainly does not mean that he has more skin than flesh.
It means that the person is insensitive or not easily affected by criticism and hence not easily upset or offended.
That may be quite a good thing in that we won’t care much about the negative things that people say about us, if we are that “thick-skinned”.
On the other hand, being “thick-skinned” could mean that one is insensitive to hints, and hence one is not bothered about the needs and feelings of other people.
Such “thick-skinned” people are like a block of wood and they have no EQ, and that’s not what we like to be either.
So having understood the meaning of “thick-skinned”, let us see if we can answer this question.
Which of the apostles do we think is the most “thick-skinned”?
If we are want a clue, then it is one of the characters that is in today’s gospel.
Well, by now, we would have certainly guessed that it is none other than Simon Peter (who incidentally was the first pope!)
Simon Peter is certainly quite thick-skinned. We will remember that passage when Jesus asked His disciples who they said He was.
Simon Peter proclaimed Him as “the Christ, the Son of God”.
But almost immediately, Peter tried to talk Jesus out of His suffering and death, and Jesus rebuked him sharply by saying to him: Get behind me Satan! Because your ways are not God’s ways but man’s ways.
Frankly, to be rebuked like that by Jesus would probably mean that we better disappear and hide our face forever.
Yet, Simon Peter still followed Jesus along the way, as if nothing had happened.
Not only is Simon Peter thick-skinned, he also has a big mouth, big enough for both feet to go in.
At the Last Supper, when Jesus talked about His impending suffering and death, Simon Peter boasted that he would stay with Jesus and even die with Him.
And yet it was he who denied knowing Jesus, and he did it three times, all within one day, and within the span of a couple of hours.
For such a thick-skinned and big-mouthed person, we may wonder what it would take to pierce through that thick skin and shut that mouth.
Well, the ways of God are indeed simple and humble and yet powerful enough to pierce any thick skin and shut any big mouth.
All it took was the crowing of a rooster, and that brought Peter to tears.
Hence the rooster became the mascot of Simon Peter and that is why some pictures have him with the rooster.
Yes, the rooster was God’s instrument to give Simon Peter the wake-up call.
Yet in today’s gospel, it seemed that Simon Peter as well as the rest of the disciples had not fully awakened, despite the fact that the Risen Christ appeared to them twice already.
Thomas may still be doubting; Nathanael might still want to sit under the fig tree; James and John might still be wondering if they could still sit on the left and right of Jesus.
As for you and me, we might still be caught up in our worldly worries and anxieties.
And it was in this dreamy state that Simon Peter suggested that they go fishing.
And as it turned out, history repeated itself, they fished all night but caught nothing.
But it was in catching nothing that they got the wake-up call.
And this is the lesson that we must learn: When we are down to nothing, then God will come up with something.
No matter how thick-skinned we might be, when we are down to nothing, we will have to go down on our knees.
No matter how big-mouthed we might be, when we are down to nothing, our mouths will also have nothing to say.
Yet, it is when we are down to nothing, that God will give us our wake-up calling.
In the 1st reading, we could see that the thick-skinned and big-mouthed Simon Peter was really awakened.
When threatened by the authorities, Simon Peter retorted: Obedience to God comes before obedience to man.
Simon Peter’s thick skin and big mouth is now used to glorify God and to give others the wake-up call from God.
So whether our skin is thick or thin, we can’t deny that we have been proud and arrogant.
Also, with our mouths, we have been boastful and spoken words that were harmful.
But Jesus rose from the dead to conquer sin and to give us a wake-up call so that we can rise from sinfulness to holiness.
God is giving us this wake-up call: That we can do nothing without Him, and that we are nothing without Him.
When we can wake up and realize that we are truly nothing, then God can raise us up into something.