Fishing During the Night

Homily for Friday of the Octave of Easter

I believe we are all aware that darkness and light are used by the evangelist St. John throughout the Gospel. Scenes that take place in the darkness, at night, are usually scenes in which faith is missing. Nicodemus comes to visit Jesus at night. Judas leaves the meal in the upper room at night. The final scene of this Gospel finds Peter and other disciples fishing throughout the night.

Scenes that take place during the day are scenes that illustrate faith. Jesus speaks to the woman at the well at noon, when the sun is at its highest. The man born blind has never seen the light. When Jesus tells him to go wash at the Pool of Siloam, he sees for the first time. Gradually, he comes to believe in Jesus as one sent by God. St. John takes great pain to tell us that Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb before dawn. It is only later in that day that she comes to faith in the resurrection of Jesus. Peter and the other disciples catch no fish during the night. However, at dawn Jesus beckons them to cast their net once more, and they catch one hundred and fifty-three large fish.

Peter denied that he even knew Jesus three times while seated around a charcoal fire with the slaves and the guards who had arrested Jesus. His denials take place before the cock crows as the sun rises. His denial of Jesus must have been on his mind when he and the other disciples recognize Jesus on the shore. Once again, they join Jesus for a meal. During the first two times that Jesus appeared to the disciples, he commissioned them to go out and preach the forgiveness of sins. Instead, they decide to go fishing; they decide to return to their former way of life. As they sit around another charcoal fire eating some bread and some fish, they are gently reminded that they were no longer fishermen.

This scene in the twenty-first chapter of St. John’s Gospel has obviously been added on. The last verses of chapter twenty are an obvious conclusion to the Gospel. Why was another chapter necessary? Somewhere along the way, the disciples had lost the zeal that prompted them to leave their fishing boats behind to follow Jesus. They needed to be reminded of their responsibility.

Once again, we find Jesus sitting down with his disciples for a meal. We, too, are gathered around the table of the Lord for a very special meal during which we will be reminded of our responsibility to live out the Gospel.