Jesus' Trust and Faith in the Apostles

In today’s Gospel, John 21-1-19, Peter and six of his companion apostles go fishing.  They work all night long and catch nothing. Jesus meets them in the morning on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias and asks them if they have caught anything to eat. “No,” they respond.  Jesus suggests that they cast the net over the right side of the boat and “you will find something.” Without hesitation, they do so and caught 153 large fish! 

Following a suggestion that seems ludicrous doesn’t sound like me at all, and perhaps not like you either.  How often have we not been at a task “all night long” with no results? Or, we are considering a task and throw up our hands, saying: “It will not work. Why bother?” And we walk away, doing nothing. What if we had followed the Spirit’s lead and tried one more time and, perhaps, tried a different tactic, one, in fact, that seemed impossible, even foolish!  Sometimes, faith invites us to “cast the net over the right side of the boat,” even though we have been “fishing all night long and caught nothing.”  And how often, like the apostles, who did not recognize Jesus on the shore, do we not recognize the voice of the Spirit inviting us to an action that we think is futile.

Would you and I know Jesus, if the apostles had given up in the face of all of the obstacles they encountered in spreading the faith in Jesus’ resurrection?  Where would you and I be in our spiritual and professional lives, in our interpersonal relationships, in our marriages, in community life lived by women and men religious, if our parents, teachers, mentors or counselors had given up when we rebelled against their guidance?  How will your children develop strong characters if you give up on them?