Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord, the after-feast of the Ascension, as well as the feast of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council!

Last evening in the Gospel reading (John 21: 1 – 14) we heard how our Lord Jesus Christ appeared to His disciples for third time after His Resurrection. This took place not in Jerusalem, but in Galilee, on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias or Galilee. At some point after the Resurrection of Christ His disciples left to go home to Galilee. They were no longer constant companions of the Lord and, as a consequence, had a lot of free time. Peter, the most active of the apostles, couldn’t sit idly and announced his return to work as a fisherman. The other disciples followed him, but that night they didn’t catch a single fish. In the morning, while the risen Christ was standing on the shore, He shouted out to the fisherman to let their nets out on the right side of the little ship. Although the disciples didn’t recognize Christ, they were obedient and immediately caught a great number of large fish. At that moment, John the Theologian recognized his Teacher and told this to Peter, who threw himself into the lake so as to more quickly reach the Saviour, while the other disciples dragged the net to shore in the boat. To the amazement of the apostles, the net contained 153 large fish. On the shore there burned a fire on which fish and bread were being prepared. Christ offered food to His friends and gave them bread and fish. None of the apostles asked Him who He was, for it was evident to all that it was the Lord.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, remember that this is not the first time in the Gospel where we read about a miraculous catch of fish. All three of the synoptic Gospels include accounts of Jesus Christ, on the banks of the Sea of Galilee at the beginning of His earthly ministry, calling his future disciples to follow Him (Matthew 4: 18–22, Mark 1: 16–20, Luke 5: 1–11). Luke mentions that at that time there was a miraculous catch of fish. The disciples were so amazed by this miracle that they left everything and followed Jesus Christ. From that time and until the arrest of the Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane, they were His constant companions. As we heard last night in the Gospel reading, after the Resurrection of the Saviour these men intended to return to their former lives, and therefore the Lord once again appeared on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, again the apostles with their own hands dragged nets filled with an unbelievable number of fish, again He called them to Himself.

This time the Galilean fishermen were called not to be simple disciples, but to be apostles, that is, they were being sent to the ends of the world to preach the risen Christ. With this second calling, the prophetic words uttered by the Lord at the first calling about these fishermen in future becoming fishers of human souls, was fulfilled. Through the teaching of the apostles, which was spread throughout the world like the net of a fisherman is spread in the sea, a great multitude of people were drawn into the ship of the Church.

Today let’s pray to the divine apostles and the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council that we remain forever in this ship of the Church.

priest Alexis