Acts 5:27-32, 40-41 / Apocalypse 5:11-14 / John 21:1-19
Life can be meaningful when there is a purpose.
So, in life, we do things with a purpose and for an objective. The purpose and the objective can be anything from the ordinary to the necessary, and from the practical to the noble.
So, we work at our jobs in order to get paid, or to fulfil an ambition in life. Or we may participate in some voluntary or social work, so as to make good use of our time to serve and to give back to society.
So, in whatever we do in life, there is a purpose and an objective that gives fulfilment and meaning to our lives.
In the gospel, we heard that the disciples went fishing all night, but somehow they caught nothing.
Fishing was their profession before they followed Jesus, but it seems that what they were good at before, now they couldn't get anything out of what they were doing.
They may have yet to realize that as disciples who have encountered the Risen Lord, they have to move on from their former way of life.
They are not to be fishermen anymore but to be fishers of men. Their new way of life is the way of discipleship and to be witnesses of the Risen Lord.
And as it was the third time that Jesus showed Himself to His disciples after rising from the dead, the disciples had better get moving to what they were called to do.
They had to get on with that purpose and the 1st reading gives a picture of how the disciples had moved on.
In the confrontation between the Sanhedrin and the apostles, Peter said that obedience to God comes before obedience to men.
Peter had the courage to say that because he himself knew what obedience was about. He had denied Jesus three times during the Passion, and after the resurrection, Jesus asked him three times if he loves Him and will obey what he was told to do.
Obedience to the way of love is obedience to God.
The voice of God is echoed in the call from the Archbishop to the faithful to come back to church after a disruptive two years when faith became sluggish and some may have lost the routine and the regular practice of coming for Sunday Eucharist.
Like the disciples, we are called and sent to those who need a gentle nudge to remind them to come back to Church and to encounter Jesus in the Eucharist.
Certainly, we must not criticize them for losing faith or not having faith.
The past two years would have taught us to be more patient and tolerant with ourselves and with others.
These past two years have been disruptive and shaken our lives.
The lesson learnt from these past two years and from the gospel is that when we complain and criticize, it shows that we don't understand nor sympathize with others.
Jesus understood Peter's pain and regret. Jesus did not criticize Peter but called him to the way of love.
When we obey the call to love and live the way of love, that would give meaning and fulfilment to our lives.
The way of love is not to complain or criticize.
The way of love is to understand and to sympathize.
That is the way of discipleship. That is to be our way of life.