"I am going fishing."

"Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias.

He revealed himself in this way.

Together were Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus,

Nathanael from Cana in Galilee,

Zebedee's sons, and two others of his disciples.

Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing."

They said to him, "We also will come with you."

So they went out and got into the boat,

but that night they caught nothing.

When it was already dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore;

but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.

Jesus said to them, 'Children, have you caught anything to eat?'

They answered him, 'No.'

So he said to them, 'Cast the net over the right side of the boat

and you will find something.'

So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in

because of the number of fish."

(Jn 21:1-6)

Peter and the disciples go out to fish, and catch nothing through the night. Jesus appears on the shore in the morning, tells them where to cast their net - and they catch so many fish they can't pull the net into the boat. 

It's amazing what happens when we let Jesus to tell us what he wants us to do, isn't it? 

We go out to do what we think we should be doing - in the way we think we should be going about it - and often, it just doesn't work. To use the fishing analogy, we don't "catch" anything. We go through the night - for us, a "night" of being blind to the presence of the Lord, and what he asks of us. Morning comes when we allow him to direct our hearts - and he responds, not only with instruction, but with generosity. Jesus tells us what we should do - and when we do, he gives from the abundance of God. 

As the disciples' net was completely weighed down by the large catch, so our lives become saturated by God's generosity. 

In a later part of this Gospel reading that I did not include above, we learn that there were one hundred fifty three large fish in that heavy net. I was told once that the "153" was significant because, in the time of Christ, there were 153 different types of fish known - symbolic of the sharing of Christ's message with the entire world. So, too, I think that the generosity of God in our own lives when we respond to his words, tells us much about the desire of God to give generously to all people, and the love he has for all of us. Thus, if God gives generously to us, we should give generously of those gifts to others - to everyone we meet - through prayer, through kindness - through sharing the Word - both in words, and most importantly, by the way we live our lives. No, we won't do it perfectly - we can't - but can't keep God's goodness all for ourselves, either. We must give it away, we need to share it with others. 

+Peace, and all good, friends. Happy Easter Friday!