The Gospel for Friday in the octave of Easter is taken from St. John, 21st chapter 1st to the 14th verse. Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. He revealed himself in this way together with Simon Peter. Thomas called Didymus, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, Zebedee’s sons and two others of his disciples. Simon Peter said to them, I’m going fishing.

They said, we’ll also come with you. So they went out and got into the boat. But that night they caught nothing. When it was already dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore. But the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, children, have you caught anything to eat?

They answered him, no. He said to them, cast the net over the right side of the boat and you’ll find something. So they cast it and were not able to pull it in because of the number of fish. So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it’s the Lord. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tucked in his garment. And for he was lightly clad and jumped into the sea.

The other disciples came in the boat, for they were not far from shore, only about a hundred yards, dragging the net with fish. When they climbed out on the shore, they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread. Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish you just caught. So Simon Peter went over and dragged the net ashore full of 153large fish. Even though there were so many, the net was not broken. Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast.

And none of the disciples dared to ask him, who are you? Because they realized it was the Lord. Jesus came over, took the bread, gave it to them in like manner the fish. This was now the third time Jesus was revealed to his disciples after being raised from the dead. This is my favorite appearance of Jesus after his death. And it’s maybe because it seems like a thing a friend might do.

Call you up and say, let’s have breakfast, I want to talk about something. But the thing I find fascinating about this is that only one of the disciples figured out, because of the miraculous catch of fish, that that must be Jesus. And the fact that they went and had breakfast with him, but never made reference that it was Jesus. Somehow says to me that this is the way in which the church, all of us people, are going to find this Jesus in a man who is doing something that is moving, that is inspiring, that is worth imitating. Think about it. When you have breakfast with someone, are you having breakfast with Jesus?

Let us pray. Father, let us recognize you and the ones around us, the ones that we are called by God to be in union with as we spend this time on this earth. It’s a wonderful thing to know that God uses each of us to feed one another. Amen.