Father Thomas Welbers' Homily	Jump back to Homily Index
Third Sunday of Easter, April 25, 2004 Acts 5:27b-32, 40b-41 Revelation 5:11-14 John 21:1-19	Listen to Audio

Did you notice hidden in the middle of this Gospel reading the line, “This was now the third time Jesus was revealed to his disciples after being raised from the dead”? What were the first two? In John’s Gospel they were the appearances we heard last Sunday: first, on the evening of Jesus’ resurrection, when the disciples were huddled together in the locked room, and Jesus gave them the gift of the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins; and second, a week later when Thomas was present and, after doubting, came to believe.

There is a significant difference between those first two appearances and this third one. The first two took place in Jerusalem, the site of Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection, and each one is clearly identified as to the time it took place: Easter Sunday night and one week later. There is no indication when the third took place, but its location is unmistakable: back at the Sea of Galilee where the apostles, at least Peter and Andrew and James and John, had been called from their careers as professional fishermen – called to follow Jesus. Simon Peter’s decision to go fishing at this time may have indicated that they didn’t know what else to do except return to the life they had formerly lived.

But this strange and mysterious appearance of Jesus on the shore recalls their original calling. You may remember back on February 8 . . . what were you doing on February 8? Well, probably you were here, listening to the account in St. Luke’s Gospel of the original call of these apostles, which was accompanied also by a wonderful and unexpected catch of fish, when they cast their nets in obedience to Jesus – but contrary to their own intuition and experience and knowledge of their craft. And Jesus simply told them from now on they would be fishing for, and catching, men and women, and invited them to follow him. Now, having returned to the place of their first call, Jesus calls them again. The Gospels of Mark and Matthew, but not John, tell us that Jesus told his apostles to go to Galilee after his resurrection and he would meet them there. But John alone goes into detail of what he did there.

Next week I’m going to speak about the threefold “Do you love me? Feed my sheep.” episode with Simon Peter, for reasons that you can find out if you check the OLA website later today. Today, I’d like to look for a few moments more at those last words of Jesus to Peter: “I tell you solemnly, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted, but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”

I think Jesus is speaking here about maturity, in both the natural sense, and the sense of nature as transformed by grace. And in so doing, he is turning our ideas of maturity pretty much upside down.

We think of maturity as independence, being able to get by well and successfully “on our own.” Jesus is pointing out that true maturity is found more in accepting our dependence and our limitations, and discovering God’s grace there. True maturity recognizes that we have one Master, and that is God as revealed in Jesus Christ. True maturity is found in the acceptance that we are not our own master, and that ultimately we belong not to ourselves but to him.

The Gospel writer’s comment about these words of Jesus, that they signified the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God, were written about thirty years after Peter’s martyrdom. And we have evidence that the story of how Peter was put to death was already widely in circulation, even if it did not make it into any of the writings that were recognized as inspired and therefore regarded as part of the New Testament.

Both Peter and Paul were put to death during the persecution of Nero in Rome, around 65 or 67 AD. Nero had started a great fire in Rome to clear land for his own building project, and then blamed the Christians, who were seen as a new and unpopular religious sect – unpopular because they challenged the sinful ways of living that were ingrained into the Roman culture. This started a great persecution in which Christians were hunted down and tortured and killed with unbelievable cruelty.

Peter, the first Pope and shepherd of the Christian community in Rome, tried to flee. And as he was traveling away from Rome on the Appian Way in search of safety, he met Jesus, who was walking the other way. Peter, according to the legend, asks him the famous question, “Domine, quo vadis?” – “Lord, where are you going?” And the risen Jesus says to him, “I am going to Rome, in order to be crucified again.”

Peter, of course, turns around and goes back to Rome, was arrested and nailed to a cross, just as his Master. He was granted one last request, to be crucified upside-down because he felt himself unworthy to share exactly the same death as his Master.

Yes, this points to true Christian maturity. To be able to hear and act on the last words of Jesus in this Gospel reading, “Follow me,” even when our own independence is limited, even when its implications are not what we would choose, and even when that following means being crucified again with Jesus.

© Thomas Welbers 2004

Here are some useful links, which provide material for the study of these liturgical readings, and reflections on their message:

The Text This Week, Third Sunday of Easter.

Daily Word of Life

The Center for Liturgy at St. Louis University

Lectionary Resource for Catholics