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FROM A READING FOR APRIL 10, THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER
'Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." Now none of the disciples dared to ask Him, "Who are you?" because they knew it was the Lord...' -- John 21:12

Psychologists and psychiatrists often remind us that, during any given day, most of us rarely perform any totally free actions. The normal pressures of living in a community environment force us either to do things we by nature wouldn't do, or not do what by nature we would do.

Usually, the most forceful pressure is that of fear. We worry about the harmful effects our actions will have on us. That's one of the reasons Sunday's first reading (Acts 5:27-32,40b-41) is so significant.

Before the 1960s, we often defended our faith's rationality with the argument that those who passed our faith onto us were "sciens and verax." In other words, they knew what had happened and truthfully conveyed those facts to us. But, once people began to understand the authors of our Christian Scriptures really weren't eyewitnesses to the events they narrated, the "sciens" part went out the window.

A new argument for our faith's reality began to evolve, revolving not so much around our faith ancestors' knowing what happened and faithfully passing it on, but around the drastic change in the personalities of those ancestors springing from their contacts with the risen Jesus.

Luke narrates some of that change in our Acts passage. Remember how he pathetically described Peter's denial of Jesus in the Gospel part of his two-volume work? The leader of the Twelve was overcome with so much fear that he denied he'd even known this itinerant Galilean preacher, much less was one of His followers.

Fear, overcome
Yet, now, after experiencing Jesus alive in his midst, this lowly fisherman courageously informs the Jerusalem authorities, "We must obey God rather than men."

What happened to the fear? I presume it was still there -- but it now was alongside another more powerful force: the conviction that nothing was more important than life, and the risen Jesus was providing that life.

Along with the author of Revelation (Rv 5:11-14), all the first Christians learned, "The Lamb that was slain...received power and riches, wisdom and strength, honor and glory and blessing." Those with faith in the risen Jesus received the same life and strength, enabling them to overcome the fear which paralyzed others. Their encounters with the risen Jesus changed their personalities.

Scholars are convinced Sunday's Gospel passage (John 21:1-19) narrates the very first of those encounters. The other Gospel meetings seem to have been read back into the disciples' post-resurrection experiences.

A new creation
Notice that Jesus' followers have done what we would have logically expected them to do: return to Galilee after His death. It's only when they go back to doing what they always did -- fishing -- that they experience Him as a "new creation."

It's in this context that I always mention Elizabeth Kubler Ross' insight that, after the death of a loved one, we eventually have to "go back to work" -- to return to doing what we did while that loved one was still with us. It's only then that we experience that special person in a new, unique way.

That seems to be exactly what happens in Sunday's Gospel. His followers encounter Him in a different way than they had encountered Him before. Yet, how can we be 100-percent certain we're really coming face to face with the risen Jesus in the ordinary things and people of our daily lives?

One rule of thumb might be a good indicator: After the encounter, we discover we're called to do things we've never done before. That certainly happened to Peter by the Sea of Tiberias -- and it might be the reason some of us refuse to admit such encounters in our own lives. We've already got enough to do.[[In-content Ad]]

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