Do Something Different

05-01-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Anthony Okolo, CSSp

We are still in the glorious mood of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead which is the foundation of our faith as Christians. His Resurrection is a credible assurance that He is alive and with us here.

Peter in the first reading speaks very authoritative/convincingly before the Sanhedrin about the risen Christ testifying that God of their ancestors raised Him up when he says, “We are witnesses of these things, as is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.” If we recall during the passion, this is the same Peter who could not stand before a young teenage girl who asked him if he was a disciple of Jesus and out of fear, denied that he was Jesus’ disciple. The same Peter now stands very bold to challenge the highest authority in Israel to declare that He is Risen without any fear of anything. The experience of the Resurrection has infused him with great courage that he is unafraid of what any human can do to him. This is why he boldly stated before the Sanhedrin “We must obey God rather than men”. In other words, he is ready to give his life to what God commands than obey any human authority. In our world today, and in history past, those who hold power in the society have always come in conflict with the messengers of the Gospel. The powers that be have always wanted to coerce messengers of the Gospel to obey them rather than listen to what God commands. This tension has generated the persecution of Christians in many parts of the world. The courage of Peter in today’s Gospel before the Sanhedrin should encourage us to proclaim the Gospel message despite the opposition. In this way, when we believe in the message of the Resurrection, the Holy Spirit empowers us equally with that courage to declare Christ before others.

In the Gospel, Peter and the other Apostles went back to their fishing business which some of them were doing before the Lord called them. Their decision to go back to the fishing business is a result of lost hope in the person of Jesus. So the only option left for them is to go back to what they were doing before they were called. Now that it seems nothing more is coming out of it they decided to go back to their old business. As John describes it in his Gospel, they fished all night and caught nothing. Their net was empty. However, when it was dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore, but the disciple did not recognize it was Jesus, and He asked them, “have you caught anything to eat?” They said, “No”. Now He said to them, “Cast the net over at the right side of the boat and you will find something”. When they did it, they caught a large amount of fish that they could not carry. There may be times we feel empty, void and we allow Jesus inside that empty space of our lives. He comes in to change the situation. This is what happened to Peter and the disciples. What we need at that time is to listen to Him and allow Him to direct us at that very moment. Again, Our Lord can always reveal Himself to us in our normal daily events and daily work of life. Peter and the other apostles were carrying out their normal business when Jesus revealed Himself to them.

This miracle teaches us that Jesus comes also to meet us when our nets of life needs are empty. He comes to assist us when we have worked all day, but could not realize anything, He then comes to fill our nets with something so that we do not go home empty handed. In this miracle Jesus is suggesting to all of us to try to do something different when we are not making progress in what we do. One good encouragement we get from the Gospel reading is that we stop lamenting about our problems, or beating our heads against the walls and try to see things in a new light. Let us try to do something different instead of staying long in our problems, in our disappointment, in our agony or tough times. The message of Easter is a message of hope and we have got to do something different following the Lord’s instruction.

May the risen Lord fill you with hope and come to your aid when your nets are empty. May He fill it with lots of blessings for you and your family. Amen.

Fr. Tony Okolo

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