Jesus reveals himself again to his disciples. Peter had said that he was going fishing and the six other disciples who were with him said they would go, too. They got into the boat and fished all night but caught nothing. When it was dawn, Jesus comes and calls from the shore: "Children, have you caught anything?" When they respond with an emphatic "no", Jesus tells them to cast the net to the right side of the boat. They do it and cannot pull the net in because of the huge amount of fish. John says to Peter, "It is the Lord" and Peter jumps into the sea to swim ashore to reach Jesus. Jesus has prepared breakfast for them with a fire that has fish on it and bread, but he tells them to bring more fish. Then he says, "Come, have breakfast." And he took bread and gave it to them and then the fish. This was the third time they had seen the risen Jesus.
There is more, but the Liturgy offers the option of stopping here as this scene has so much to think about and it is one of the most intimate scenes of Jesus with his disciples for he not only has prepared breakfast for them but given them another catch of fish after they had toiled all night and caught nothing. He uses some of the fresh fish and serves them himself.
It was Peter who suggested going fishing; as a true leader, he announced that he was going and they followed, but the fish did not bite. When Jesus appears on the shore, they do not recognize him, but as soon as Peter hears that it is the Lord, he jumps into the water to go to Jesus the quickest way. I suspect that when he arrived, he did not really know what to say and maybe that is why they took time to count the fish! The point was that they were with Jesus. In prayer, words are not important. Just be there with Jesus.
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