The resurrection appearances of Jesus are filled with surprises and mystifying details. His friends do not recognize Him. He appears through locked doors. He has broken out of a tomb, but carries the wounds of His dying. He speaks of peace and forgiveness. He promises the gift of His Spirit. He sends His disciples to change the world.
But, in today's account, we seem to be intruders on a very private, intimate scene among friends. Jesus appears on the lakeshore and invites his disciples to breakfast. We are left to imagine what their conversation was like. Then we overhear a very personal exchange between Peter and the Lord: "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" The question asked not once, but three times.
Scripture commentators have traditionally suggested that Jesus is giving Peter a chance to wipe out the bitter memory of his three-fold denial. But, it's impossible not to feel the emotion, the warmth, the gentleness of Jesus reaching out to heal the wounds of betrayal, and to allow His friend to cry out three times: "You know that I love you!"
In the Scriptures, every Resurrection appearance story is accompanied by a mandate, a call - a challenge to commitment. As he did at their very first encounter, Jesus says to Peter: "Follow me." And just like Peter, he says the same to us.
We are a wounded community and unfortunately the severest of wounds are those which are self-inflicted. We are a fractured community, polarized by our hard-heartedness and stubborness. These wounds demand attention not just to themselves but also to the much broader context of which they are a part. And that is our lingering failure to become what Jesus obviously had in mind: truly a people’s church, a community in which we each have been called to “tend to one other,” to be attentive, to pay attention and to "feed one another."
We have been chosen to witness to Christ's call to Life. Each of us has been sent to feed one other, to nourish and be nourished through community. We are each challenged to proclaim to the world that our God is a God who takes life with absolute seriousness, a God who enters fully into suffering and death and does not allow it the final victory. We do this just by living our daily lives as best we can by raising our children, by teaching, listening, comforting and encouraging others, guiding and defending life.
Today's Gospel is a wonderful lesson for each of us, struggling with our own very personal efforts to love Jesus and to be faithful to Him. We are so often slow to understand, eager to deny. We are strong on words and weak on action, afraid to pay the price of discipleship, but always hanging in, and always knowing that Jesus will always invites us to "Come, have breakfast!"
