Thursday, April 20, 2017

Friday within Easter Octave, 21-04-17

Acts 4:1-12 / John 20:1-14

Have we ever tried to catch fish with our bare hands? If we want to try, then we can go to the pond outside and just try to catch one of the fishes there.

Needless to say, trying to catch fish with bare hands is no easy task. It would be easier to use a small net to catch the fish, like how they do it in the restaurants after a fish is selected from the tank.

But a fisherman would use a more professional equipment like a fishing net which can be cast over a wider area to catch more fish.

In the gospel, the disciples went fishing all night but they caught nothing. It seems rather strange that they caught nothing. And they were not amateurs. At least for Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, fishing was their former profession, and it can't be that they lost all their skills and knowledge to the extent that they couldn't even catch a single fish!

And then Jesus came along and told them where to fish. And they caught so many big fish that they could not haul it in.

But more than just catching fish, the disciples caught a revelation. The Risen Jesus appeared to them, and though they didn't realised it initially, it was only when Jesus revealed Himself that they caught it.

No questions were asked, Maybe because none of the disciples were bold enough to ask "Who are you?"; they knew quite well it was the Lord. Jesus had revealed Himself to them through the miraculous catch of fish. So more than just catching fish, the disciples caught a revelation.

In the 1st reading, Peter and John were arrested for proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus and imprisoned. They were "caught" by the religious authorities.

Yes, the religious authorities caught the disciples but nothing more. They didn't seem to catch anything more or anything else.

That brings about the question of faith. Faith can be taught, but more often it is caught. It is caught when others see in us a revelation of who Jesus is by our words and actions.

That will bring about a spark of faith which will slowly burn into a fire of faith in Jesus.

We are called to be "fishers of men". But we are also called to be the "fishes" of the revelation of the Risen Christ in others.

It was the fishes that revealed the Risen Christ to the disciples. May we also be the "fishes" that will help others catch the revelation of the Risen Christ and come to believe in His Resurrection.