A Reading from the Gospel of John
After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat; but that night they caught nothing.
Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, have you any fish?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, for the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his clothes, for he was stripped for work, and sprang into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.
When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them; and although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” A second time he said to him, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you fastened your own belt and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will fasten your belt for you and carry you where you do not wish to go.” (This he said to show by what death he was to glorify God.) And after this he said to him, “Follow me.”
Reflection
In our work of healing, we must try to be vulnerable.
When we try, we will inevitably fail.
This failure may be our own fault or it may be the fault of others.
In either case we will find ourselves wounded, hurting and face the choice of how to move forward.
Our decision at this point is critical, and it’s one of the hardest decisions we make in life.
This is the decision Peter faced after failing miserably to be the rock Jesus had called him to be.
We can imagine the shame Peter felt in his threefold denial.
It was shame that made him want to hide himself—perhaps this is why Peter put on his clothes to cover his nakedness before jumping in the water to swim to Jesus (Jn 21:7).
But Jesus wanted to meet Peter in his shame and teach him the most important lesson—when we try and fail then we just need to own it and surrender.
In our failures we are tempted to cover ourselves in excuses, in blame, in denial, in giving up, or lowering our standards.
We do not want anyone to see our failures.
We do not want to be vulnerable and get hurt again.
The only way to heal from the shame of our failures, however, is precisely to be vulnerable so that we can discover that we are still loved and that we still belong.
As the sociologist Brené Brown described it: “If you put shame in a Petri dish it will grow exponentially from silence, secrecy and judgment.
It will be eradicated if you douse it with empathy.”
Jesus gently exposed Peter’s shame.
He brought it to the surface, loved Peter in his failure, and doused it with empathy.
He did that by first drawing his attention to his denial with the charcoal fire—in Greek anthrakia.
The only other place in the whole New Testament where there was an anthrakia was in the place where Peter denied Christ (cf. John 18:18).
We often fall into patterns of sin that are triggered by particular features of our surroundings.
Sometimes it is night time or the hotel room or the sports game or the technological device.
As soon as we encounter it, we are right back in the place of our failure and we face temptation.
Jesus wanted to redeem the failure of Peter and so he met him at the charcoal fire.
But he also redeemed the charcoal fire.
He cooks little fish—opsarion on it.
The only other time that opsarion are mentioned in the New Testament was when Jesus multiplied bread and fish, a symbol for the Eucharist (cf. John 6:9).
(Note: John’s account of the multiplication uniquely uses the word opsarion for those fish which is often not translated well into English but should be “little fish,” “sardines,” or something like that.)
That means that amazingly, Jesus is associating the memory of Peter’s worst sin with the symbol of His own Body and Blood.
He doubles down on this gesture when he recalls Peter’s threefold denial by asking Peter three times, “Do you love me?”
And then he reaffirms Peter’s role as chief shepherd: “Tend my sheep.”
He combats the isolation of shame with empathy and the reassertion of Peter’s belovedness and belonging.
