It is not Business as Usual

Following the recent events in the upper room, the disciples decided to return to their "former" lives as fishermen. I guess I’m puzzled as to how, after all that they've experienced, they could go back to their old jobs as fisherman, as if the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus were a mere interruption in their routine. Sure, it’s their livelihood and yes, it may be their way of processing the life-changing events that they've experienced, and… yet, it almost suggests, a laissez faire  "back to business as usual” mentality. Needless to say, John 21:1-19 has his reasons for telling this story and he continues... a “stranger” appears on the shore and inquires as to how they’re doing. They respond with some frustration, not so well. The stranger calls out to “try another side” and see what happens. Maybe their “old habits” and practices were just not working? Whatever it was, they ventured back out and were hugely successful as their nets overflowed. We are told that they caught 153 fish.*

Perhaps John tells this story to help us understand that the incarnation of God in Christ; Jesus' time ministering on earth, his crucifixion death and resurrection were life-changing transformative events, and not a time to fall back on old ways of living. No. it's not business as usual! Jesus is telling us to reach out to the world and “put our nets back in the sea” even when we are tired and have had no luck. In relating his encounter with Peter, Jesus reinforces his teaching and the need for us to love one another by caring for each other. We are asked to abandon our old habits of fear and leave our “comfort zones” to create new habits. We are called to be mindful of the needs of our world and in so doing actively live our faith.

Psychologists tell us that people experiencing traumatic stress may undergo a process of regression that sends them back to firmly entrenched attitudes and behaviors that may represent comfort zones to them. In many ways it either enables people to process or repress traumatic events of their lives. Jesus seemed perfectly willing to start over with these men who had abandoned him, and to confirm once again that they had been chosen, not in spite of their life experiences, but because of them.



*As an aside some commentators have suggested that the153 fish represented the number of "the nations of the earth." The only historical citation for it is found in a much later source. If that is its meaning, then it would be consistent with the command to make disciples of all nations. (Personal commentary by Father Donald Caron 4/16)