Breakfast with Jesus

Homily for Friday in Easter Week

The readings today draw us into the heart of Easter faith: the boldness that comes from knowing the Risen Christ.

In Acts 4, Peter—once fearful and unsure—now stands before the authorities proclaiming that “there is no salvation through anyone else.” What changed him wasn’t a sudden burst of courage or a clever argument. It was the encounter with the Risen Jesus. Resurrection turns ordinary people into witnesses.

Psalm 118 echoes that transformation. The psalmist rejoices that “the stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.” God takes what seems weak, overlooked, or defeated and makes it the foundation of something new. Easter is God’s great reversal—light out of darkness, life out of death, hope out of despair.

And then we come to John 21, where Jesus meets His disciples in the simplest, most human way: at daybreak, on the shore, with breakfast. They had gone back to fishing—back to what was familiar—yet Jesus steps into their ordinary work and fills it with abundance. The nets overflow not because of their skill, but because of His presence.

Together, these readings remind us of something essential:

🌅 The Risen Christ meets us where we are, transforms what we offer, and sends us out with courage.

Like Peter, we may feel unqualified. Like the rejected stone, we may feel overlooked. Like the disciples fishing in the dark, we may feel tired or unsure. But Jesus stands on the shore of our lives, calling us by name, inviting us to trust Him again, and giving us what we need to begin anew.

So today, let’s ask for the grace to recognize Him in the ordinary, to trust Him in the uncertain, and to witness to Him with the quiet courage of people who know they are loved.