Once Forgiven, We Need to Get to Work for the Lord

            Today’s Gospel reading contains a wonderful resurrection scene at the conclusion of the Gospel of John. The disciples had returned to fishing.  Why were they back in the boat?  Had they given up on Jesus?  Or were they merely making a living for their families until they heard from the Lord?  We really don’t know.  But like the first time Jesus called out to them, actually in the Synoptics, Matthew Mark and Luke,  they were not very successful until the Lord told them to cast their nets off to the right side of the boat.  They didn’t recognize the Lord until they saw the results of listening to him.  Then they caught 153 large fish.  Why 153?  Remember in the Synoptics, Jesus said, “I will make you fishers of men.” Well, 153 was the number of nations known to exist. 

            “It is the Lord,” Peter said, and then in a complete reverse of what we would do, he put on his clothes and jumped into the water to be with Jesus.  He was going before the Holy One and needed to be dressed appropriately, just as most of you do when you come to Church.

            When Peter and the other disciples in the boat behind him came upon Jesus, they found him sitting at a fire.  He offered them breakfast.  Jesus was not a ghost, but a real human being.  He ate with them. 

            Then we come to that wonderful dialogue between Jesus and Peter demanding the triple affirmation from Peter as a negation of his triple denial on Good Friday.  “Do you love me, Simon Peter?” “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” “Then feed my sheep.”

            Jesus was not about to let Peter wallow in his own guilt and self-pity.  OK, he had done a terrible thing.  He had denied the Lord.  But, to Jesus,  there were more important things to consider: Peter, as head of the apostles, would be the point

man in the establishment of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. In the first reading for this Sunday, Peter happily accepts being flogged for the sake of the Word of God.  In a complete reversal from the coward who lied on Good Friday, Peter tells the Sanhedrin that he will listen to the Lord rather than them.  We know from early Christian writers that Peter would eventually go to Rome and, as the Roman historian Tertullian states, endure a passion like his Lord’s.” The Christian theologian, Origen, and others testify that Peter was crucified, head downward. This happened in the Ager Vaticanus, the area on the west bank of the Tiber where Nero had constructed an arena. Christians would eventually build a Church over the burial spot, and then a basilica.  The truth of Jesus would continue to nourish the people from Peter and those who stood in his place, the popes.

            This all happened because Peter  accepted the forgiveness of the Lord and moved on with the Lord’s business.  That’s the main message for those of us who have also have sinned and then sought forgiveness.  We cannot allow ourselves to be mired down in the past.  Jesus has far more important things for us to do then wallow in guilt.

            Let me tell you two typical stories of people whom Jesus would not allow to remain stagnating in their own guilt.

            A man made a horrible decision.  He left his wife and children for the sake of a new and passionate love, or at least lust.  He did his best to convince himself that he was making the best choice for himself.  He even found professionals who supported his choice.  He should have been happy, but when he thought about his wife and children and how he had forever altered the  future he could have had with his family, he realized that his life was a mess.  He was in chaos, in sin.

            He might have thought that he was done with God, but God was not finished with him.  Through constant prodding of Grace the man turned back to God.  After receiving forgiveness, he did all he can to heal the hurt he inflicted by becoming a new person, one who is loving and giving.  He could not reconstruct the bridges he burned, but he could move on and do the work of the Lord.  By the end of his life his children and even his former wife, recognized that his goodness had overcome the pain he inflicted.  They remember their father and her former husband for the good man he had become and the way he brought Jesus’ love to them.  He died in peace. 

            Jesus will not allow us to be mired down in our guilt.  He has too much work for us to do.  His work.

            A young woman was forced into a horrible decision.  She allowed the life within her to be destroyed. So many people she had respected told her that it is the best thing for her to do.  Only, they didn’t have to live with the result.  Perhaps these authority figures in her life carry a greater responsibility than she does for what happened, but she was the one who suffered.  She was the one who could think about a child without being immersed in pain.   She was the one  who is in turmoil.

            She sought forgiveness through confession and healing through Project Rachel.  She learned that Jesus has work for her. She could form a positive out of the horrible negative of her life.   Pope John Paul II actually wrote to her and those like her.  He wrote the she can become stronger than before because she recognized the value of human life.  To quote the late Holy Father once more: you can be among the most eloquent defenders of everyone’s right to life.  Through your commitment to life,

whether by accepting the birth of other children or by welcoming and caring for those most in need of someone to be close to them, you will become promoters of a new way of looking at human life.  She can live in peace.  She must live in peace.  God has work for her to do. 

            Jesus will not allow us to be mired down in our guilt.  He has too much work for us to do.  His work.

            We do not have the right to give up on ourselves. Others are depending on us.  We have a function, a mission to complete with our lives.  We are members of the Body of Christ. We need to fulfill our function within the Body for the good of the world.

            Jesus rose from the dead  both to give us his life and to enable us to impart his life to others.

            We are all human beings in need of the forgiveness of God. But once we have been forgiven, we need to get to work.

            “Show your love for me, Simon Peter, by feeding my sheep,” the Lord said.

            Jesus has too much work for us to do.  His work.