“I am going fishing”

A reflection on Jesus’ appearance to His disciples by the Sea of Tiberias according to the Gospel of John. (Read John 21:1-14)

Have you ever been in a situation where you just about given up? You know those times when you try anything and everything to find a solution or a resolution but nothing seems to work?

I watch a lot of sports especially cricket and the real footy, rugby league. You guessed it, I go for the holiest team in the NRL, the Saints. If there is one thing I recall from those that analyse the game is that players or teams who go through a rough period sometimes try everything and anything to get back into winning form but it seems the more they try, the worst it gets. Just watch St George lately and you will know what I mean. So coaches often say the problem is that “we are trying too hard”.

It is like that in life. We often try too hard and at the end we feel like giving up. We feel that we hit a road block and there seems to be no way out. It could be work or family related but “dead-ends” are familiar to all of us.

The Gospel today speaks of this similar frustration that Peter and his men encountered as “They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing”. That “night” they caught nothing. Wow.

Off course, this Gospel is after the resurrection, after the story of Jesus appearing to Thomas. But it seems that Peter and the rest still did not grasp this event and so Peter said, I am going back to my old life, “I am going fishing”. What confirms this for us is their reaction and the story that follows where Jesus speaks to Peter personally and asks him “Do you love me?”

It is often so true for us that when things get tough we go back to our old ways. I do this often. When I am tired, stressed, angry or helpless, I get lonely at “night” and go back to my old habits. It could be a repetitive sin or just good old nostalgia. It is often at “night” that we go back on good resolutions we make. And even if you are married with many Children, sometimes at night it gets lonely.

Interestingly the word “night” (Greek: nykti) is used only few times in John; when Nicodemus comes to Jesus twice at “night” so the Jewish leaders don’t find out and when Jesus says on his way to raise Lazarus “Those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them”.

So “night” is when darkness sets in and we stumble but thank God for the light, for the time “Just after daybreak”. It is there where and when Jesus stands and gives his word. “Cast the net to 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 because there were so many fish.”

This is a call for us to “cast the net to the right” when things get tough. This is not another option or solution to try among the many others. This is a real giving-up on our own initiatives and handing it over to Jesus. This requires humility and repentance. It requires us recognising that we are poor and small. That alone we do not have the answers, that we need help. We need Grace. And that is sometimes very hard…

It is a time to accept our weaknesses and come to fix our gaze on the light, on the risen Lord who always ensures that when we turn to Him, we catch so many fish that our “nets are torn”.

Let us pray that we learn to “get out of the way” and patiently trust in God’s generosity and timing. He will turn every “dead-end” into “life” for God always gives His graces in abundance beyond what we can contain..