Thursday, April 9, 2015

Friday within Easter Octave, 10-04-15

Acts 4:1-12 / John 21:1-14

In the midst of a changing world, and it is changing in every sense of the word, there are many other things that remain the same, or at least they retain some familiarity.

The appearance may remain the same or that it is familiar, but internally things may have changed. Conversely, it can be a change in appearance but nothing has changed internally.

For the disciples in the gospel passage, things have changed and yet some things have remained the same.

Things have changed, and changed drastically, ever since they encountered the Risen Christ.

But it seemed that the changing curve had plateaued off and they began going back to what was familiar and to what life used to be.

Maybe they were unsure, after all that had happened, what to do next, and so the best thing to do for the moment was to go back to fishing.

And just when they thought it was safe to go back to the water, the winds of change started blowing for yet another encounter with the Risen Christ.

And from then on, as we heard in the 1st reading, how the renewed change had led Peter and John to proclaim the Risen Christ.

As for us, Easter had come and gone. Whether we had prepared ourselves spiritually during Lent, that is already over. Whether there was any change in us during Lent or at the celebration of Easter, that is already a side issue.

Easter is about rising and changing. The Risen Christ will keep coming at us until something happens in us.

May the grace of Easter bring about a change in us so that we will dare to go out into the deep water and witness to Christ by being fishers of men.