Easter Friday (26 April 2019)
John 21:1-14.
“...there was some bread there and a charcoal fire with fish cooking on it.”
Every Christian is able to tell what the last supper was about. It is an unforgettable meal, one that is commemorated in most Christian communities in one way or another. We very rarely hear, however, about another meal that Jesus had with his disciples after his resurrection, his last breakfast with them.
Evening meals are generally nice. The day is over, the work done. Breakfast is a different issue. It is at the beginning of the day; the work has to be started, organized, and divided. When people come together for breakfast, it is often for a working breakfast.
That is what happened that day. Peter and some others had gone out fishing. They hadn’t caught anything. When they approached the lake shore they saw a man who asked them for some fish. When they told him that they hadn’t caught anything, he suggested they throw the net out once more. They did, and caught 153 big fish. By that time they had recognized Jesus, and they were surprised to be invited to a breakfast for which he had already baked the bread and some fish. It was after that breakfast that he asked Peter, “Do you love me?”
After that breakfast they got to hear with Peter what loving Jesus would mean--going out to the whole wide world taking care of his sheep and his lambs.
On the shore was that strange number of fish: 153. Experts have puzzled over that number. (I was not able to get a google image of the painting of Sr Genevieve SMMI, who arranges the 153 fish in a sum of first seventeen numerals: 1 + 2 + 3 +…..+17 = 153.) It probably represented the different varieties of fish observed in that region at the time. If so, Peter and company must have understood that the number symbolized their mission to the world. Plenty for them, and us, to do!
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