HOMILY FOR THE FRIDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF EASTER, LITURGICAL CALENDAR YEAR B
THEME: Jesus stepped forward, took the bread and gave it to them, and the same with the fish.
BY: Fr Deotacious Chikontwe SMA
READINGS OF THE DAY
Acts 4:1-12
Psalm 117:1-2,4,22-27
John 21:1-14
LITURGICAL COLOUR
WHITE
INTRODUCTION
Good morning my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate Friday within the Octave of Easter.
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FROM OUR FIRST READING
In our first reading today, we find Peter proclaiming the truth of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. He is interrupted by the priests, the captain of the temple guard, and the Sadducees. The Sadducees, in particular, did not believe in a resurrection. Peter and John are arrested and judged the following day by the seventy-one members of the Sanhedrin. Unlike his timid responses to the servant girl on the night of Jesus’ trial, Peter is fearless and is filled with the Holy Spirit. He proclaims that the crippled man was healed in the name of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the stone, rejected by the elders of Israel, who has become the cornerstone of God’s New Temple. Faith in Jesus bestows forgiveness of sins and salvation, and there is no salvation through anyone else.
FROM OUR GOSPEL READING
According to John gospel, the revelation at the Sea of Galilee (also known as the Sea of Tiberias) was the third time that Jesus appeared to his disciples. The first time was on the first day of the week, on the Sunday after his passion and death. On that first day, Jesus appeared throughout the entire day to various disciples and, in the evening, to those gathered together in Jerusalem. Jesus appeared a second time on the eighth day, once again on a Sunday, when Thomas was present with the other disciples. The third appearance, according to the Gospel of John, takes place on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The disciples likely traveled for five days to Galilee from Jerusalem, having spent the week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread in Jerusalem. They likely rested on the Sabbath after their five-day journey. When evening came and night fell, Peter and six other disciples began fishing on the Sea of Galilee. On Sunday morning, Jesus calls out to the tired fishermen from the shore and asks them whether they caught anything. It is not by chance that the appearances and revelation of the Risen Jesus happen each week on Sunday.
CONCLUSION
Every Sunday we too encounter the risen Jesus in the Word of God and in the Bread of Life. The place of the miraculous catch of fish also recalls the previous sign of the multiplication of the loaves and fish (John 6:1-15). Just as the risen Jesus provides a meal with Eucharistic overtones to the crowds and to his disciples, so also his disciples are to go and bring all nations to the table of the Eucharist, feed them with the Word of God, and give them the Bread of Life.
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