In the weeks after Easter, we have readings from The Acts of the Apostles. Written by the Gospel writer Luke, this work takes up where his Gospel ends. We thus have a 2-part work that shows how Jesus was born and eventually went to Jerusalem where he met his death and where he rose FROM the dead. Acts begins with what scholars refer to as “post-resurrection” narratives. Today’s reading is one of them.
Notice how there appears to be a difference between Jesus and the bodily form in which he manifests his new life. Be it Magdalene speaking with a gardener, apostles speaking with a traveler on the road to Emmaus, or fishermen not recognizing it was Jesus on the shore—there seems to be a challenge to recognizing Jesus as an alive person. Then something happens such that they DO recognizes him at some point. Even today’s reading has Peter HEAR John say that the man on the shore is Jesus. Peter himself went after Jesus because John DID see him and TOLD him where Jesus was. Sort of like today when some people are graced with seeing Christ alive in others? And some DON’T. Couldn’t Peter recognize him? Did he have to be TOLD that the man on the shore was Jesus? Sort of like how WE often enough need to be told by someone where, exactly, Jesus has “appeared” to us in our experience.
These stories often report a sighting of Jesus at a meal context (e.g., breakfast today with bread mentioned) nearby—with Jesus taking the bread and passing it to those gathered. We are bludgeoned with what, exactly, the underlying point of these experiences is. Namely, these post-resurrection narratives show how people experienced the risen Lord. How did they? Through the breaking of bread, the Eucharist. These experiences of Jesus after his death tell readers that they, too, can experience Jesus by being part of the sacramental community that breaks bread and shares it.
Today’s gospel mentions the disciples netting 153 fish, and citing this marvelous haul is reminding listeners of the story that Jesus is “the Christ/Messiah” symbolized by the fish! Why a fish should remind listeners? Because the Greek word for fish is “icthus,” it became a symbol for the risen lord since its letters were an acronym standing for “Jesus Christ Son of God Savior.”
So Luke’s Gospel ends with Jesus risen and Acts goes on to report how the faith community did, in fact, spread to the ends of the earth (symbolized by this book ending with the Church established in Rome—where Peter and Paul, and many others, were martyred). Remember, “Rome” symbolizes “the ends of the earth” because the Roman Empire governed all lands and people. This book’s basic theme is that through the Holy Spirit, the “Church” spread from Jerusalem to Hemlock and Merrill. And this weekend’s first communicants are going to be witnesses, we hope, to seeing and BEING Jesus ALIVE in our everyday experience.
Today’s Gospel profoundly reports our responsibility as church-going, members of the “Body of Christ.” How’s that? Well, remember during Holy Week when Peter denied Jesus three times? Traditionally, today’s passage is supposed to hammer home Jesus forgiving Peter for his cowardice to assert his identity as a follower of Jesus. Three times Peter is asked if he loves the Lord, and three times Peter professes that he does. Okay, you can see this passage reminding us that Jesus is asking Peter to assert his connection to him. However, there’s MORE that we are being told.
When Jesus says “Feed my sheep,” he’s equivalently saying to Peter something to this effect: “If you really do ‘love’ me as you say you do, then show your love by taking care of the people of God, all my ‘children’ on earth—my ‘flock’ of ‘lambs and sheep’ who need your pastoral care.” In short, this anecdote about Jesus questioning Peter is OUR call to discipleship. If we truly DO “love” God, we are people who do it by ‘loving’ others in caring for their needs, the basic necessities that they need to live, the land on which they live, and the food and health care that they need to survive. If this sounds like Christian identity entails political action that brings justice to all, it’s because Jesus himself was a community organizer, a political activist, and one who took care of the many needs of people who came to him. Our identity is nothing less.
You and I might say we love God and show it by going to Church or praying, but that’s one-half of what makes us Catholic. We come to church to do as the disciples did—SEE where Jesus exists in our lives (or does not), and receive communion and the other sacraments so that we be up to performing the role of discipleship.
Our first communicants this week begin a life of wondering just what it is that sees their family members, and now them, received a round piece of what they’re told is “bread” and a sip of wine from a chalice. They join centuries of tradition that has seen countless people do what they’re doing today. They will continue to hear about and perhaps experience what generations have reported.
For example they will see people who call themselves “Christian” drink wine, or grape juice, and have regular bread or unleavened bread. Some will gather at a table or what they call an altar (or call it both). They’ll hear reference to the experience being that of a “Mass” or memorial meal or communion service, the Eucharist, or a sacrament.
For some it makes present Christ’s suffering and thus a place where we feel his empathy for us and our varied sufferings—while they will see others celebrate joy of being fed by God and given God’s love for them (to which they shout “alleluia.” Some Christian gatherings will invite all to break bread and pass the cup (chalice) while others will restrict access to certain persons only.
For some it makes present the real, physical body of Christ, for others it is understood to make Christ present in a tangibly spiritual way. Our first communicants hear that the bread and wine that they are given—are visible signs of an invisible reality. That “invisible reality” is what they heard at Christmas sung as Emmanuel—God with us. At communion, our young ones experience signs that remind them that God is with them (as they confront hurt or rejection or happiness or victories or defeats).
This “church-going” experience of “first communion” will present itself to them at every Catholic church around the world, and they are now able to “receive communion” at any of those churches. Thus, this bread and wine is a special bond between every Catholic with every other Catholic. Here at home or abroad, they will see people received once a year, or every day. Some will receive rejoicing and some tearfully receiving. Our first communicants will hear different understandings of “communion” and spend their lives experiencing it in different ways.
They may hear the ancient prayer that said something to the effect that “Many grains have gone into the making of this bread—grains crushed to feed us. We, like the grains, are many who have been hurt but who, like the grains can become one bread able to feed many. And like grapes crushed, so have we witnessed the crushing of lives—so we ask the God of crushed wheat and crushed grapes to nourish us so that we can be a source of life for others.