Jesus Rescues You

You know, today's psalm is probably one of the most beautiful psalms that we have.

I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.

And it's the message of today's gospel, of course, when the disciples,

after what they had done to Jesus, how they had left him,

how they had betrayed him, and how they showed, in a sense, we could say,

three years with Jesus and what was left of those three years.

When danger came, when uncertainty came, nothing was left, it seems, nothing.

And yet Jesus comes and he speaks to them like a father to children.

Children, have you caught anything? because Jesus

has this mercy beyond our understanding and he continues to fight for us and

continues to invite us to live in his light and live in his grace and sometimes

also invites us to wonder about what is left of my years of practicing the faith.

How am I in times of difficulty, temptation, struggle?

Am I like the disciples before resurrection or am I already like the disciples after resurrection?

Which is, of course, what we want to be. We don't want to be as fearsome as they were.

Sometimes we are wondering, how is it even possible that they were so wicked

before the resurrection?

Well, we receive the resurrected body of Jesus.

We are the ones who are blessed, as Jesus says, because we have not seen and yet we believe, he says.

And so the heart of the gospel today is in the imitation of Jesus.

When he comes to them and he feeds them, right, come have breakfast.

It's this paternal kind of description of Jesus' love.

And he meets them where they are, where they understand the most.

The first time Jesus met them was exactly the same circumstances, right?

Empty nets. They didn't find, they didn't catch anything throughout the night.

Today when Jesus meets them is exactly the same circumstance,

and yet he's going to invite them to tend the sheep, to lead the flock that

he is sending to the whole world.

And so this gospel reminds us that love is not proven in perfection,

but love is proven in repentance, and love is proven in trust and willingness

to follow even after we have fallen.

And Jesus, full of mercy, meets us right there by the fire with breakfast waiting

in a symbolic way, ready to begin again, especially, of course,

in confession and in the Eucharist.