RSS Feed"You are saying about this city, 'By the sword, famine and plague it will be handed over to the king of Babylon'; but this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I will surely gather them from all the lands where I banish them in my furious anger and great wrath; I will bring them back to this place and let them live in safety. They will be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul.
Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits[ of God sent out into all the earth. He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song:
"You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth."
Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang:
"Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!"
Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing:
"To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!" The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshiped.
Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Tiberias. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. "I'm going out to fish," Simon Peter told them, and they said, "We'll go with you." So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
He called out to them, "Friends, haven't you any fish?"
"No," they answered.
He said, "Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some." When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.
Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, "It is the Lord," he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. 8The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards.[b] 9When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.
Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish you have just caught."
Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." None of the disciples dared ask him, "Who are you?" They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.
Jeremiah 32:36-41, Revelation 5:6-14, John 21:1-14 - Proper of the Third Sunday of Easter (year C)
The Bible (New International Version)
We are in Eastertide. It is time to remember the fantastic happenings that succeeded the death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We know that He spent forty days, already resurrected, among his companions and disciples, and this is the time we intend to remember during this season.
Today's Gospel tells us that Jesus appeared to his disciples, another time, on the shores of the Sea of Tiberias. They were there, fishing – or at least trying to fish, because they could not catch a fish. Can you imagine what you would do if the risen Christ appeared to you in such an ordinary moment of your daily life?
But the Christ that embraced children, fed the famine, gave shelter to the poor and alleviated the oppressed need not always to appear in a “glorious moment”, because, to Him, all our life, if lived according to His commandments, is a moment to the Glory of God.
Thus, fishing, cooking, cleaning windows, peeling vegetables, sweeping the floor and so many other daily tasks are, yes, dignifying to God's eyes, and in all of them, Christ reveals himself in a subtle, yet very real way.
In this case, however, Christ was revealed in an even more special way: He appeared to those people. I have the impression that they were a bit embarrassed with that, because, although He was risen and had already appeared before, His followers didn't have, yet, a clear vision of what to do from that moment on. I also imagine that some of them were still ashamed, for having denied Him, or not believed in His resurrection.
Christ's appearance, however, happens in a serene way. He shows Himself, another time, through a miracle of food multiplication, bringing the help His disciples needed. Their attitude is of complete reverence and unconditional acceptance of Jesus Christ, as their Lord.
This takes us to the beautiful passage from the book of Revelation that we have today. One of the things that pleases me the most during this period of the Church year is the possibility of reflecting on passages of St. John's Revelation. Unfortunately, this book still scares many of our brothers and sisters, but it is, truly, a book of hope – the hope that the one to whom we owe all Honor will win, at the end.
And today's reading speaks of that. The slain Lamb stands, which is a sign of His victory over death. This lamb is Jesus, our Lord, who has offered himself in sacrifice for all of us, and conquered death. Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, one of the Capadocian fathers, has written that "that which was not assumed is not healed; but that which is united to God is saved". Thus, it was necessary for God to become one of us, share our griefs and feel what is like to exist as a human being, and being submitted to the infamous death on the cross, suffering the injustice of this world – experiencing the worst side of humankind.
From this experience, we borrow the metaphor of Jesus as a lamb. The lamb is a tremendously innocent animal. It follows blindly its shepherd without fleeing. Its white wool is immaculate and its pacific behavior ends up turning it into an easy target for its predators. Such animals, for their sweetness and purity, were used in sacrifices to Israel's God. When God presents Jesus, in a vision, as the Paschal Lamb, He shows that Christ was submitted to the “once for all” sacrifice, which allowed us to have the definitive reconciliation with the Father.
St. John had a vision of the Kingdom of God. He saw twenty-four elders, who can be interpreted as angelical beings, or even as the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve disciples of Christ – representing the peoples of the Old and of the New covenant. He could also see four living beings: one like an eagle, one like a lion, one like an ox and one like a man. They are regarded as the four Gospels, each one showing a differente vision of Jesus. This revelation also tells us about bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. This shows us that the saints intercede for us, for the Church and for all mankind. Finally, countless angels bow around the throne, and all of them, in one sole voice, together with all creatures from the skies, earth and seas adore the one who sits on the throne – God, and the Lamb – Christ.There is a special moment in our eucharistic liturgy in which we have a brief notion of this vision. It is called the Sanctus-Benedictus, and starts as “holy, holy, holy, Lord of power and might”. Immediately before this moment, when the celebrant invites us to sing these words with angels, archangels and celestial multitudes, I imagine that Heaven opens upon us and we joing that choir composed by all faithful who have departed and also all celestial creatures, praising in reverence the triune God: our creator, our redeemer and our sanctifier.
These multitudes of angels and saints have seen God in the Lamb and, in gratitude, adored Him. Jesus' disciples have seen God in the risen Christ by the sea and, with reverence, obeyed Him. And this takes us to our first lesson, taken from the book of Jeremiah. There, God leaves us a message of hope. He will reunite His people from all countries in which they are spread, giving them a new heart and doing good to them forever. They will be God's people, and God will be God for them.
The disciples embraced Jesus as their God. They saw God in Christ! Christ revealed Himself as God to them and embraced them as His people. In some occasions, before ascending into Heaven, He revealed Himself to them, signalizing how much He loved them and the way He wanted them to follow. Jesus gave them food and, with them, broke the bread. In the simplicity of that moment, they adored Him, with much reverence. That was the beginning of more than two millenia of Christian faith.
In Heaven, the angels and archangels, the saints and the Church see God in the Paschal Lamb. This Lamb stands before them, showing that he defeated death and is risen. He reveals Himself as God to all those creatures, and they adore Him in uncessantly praise.
May we also embrace the risen Christ as our God, for “Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast” as the Pascha Nostrum canticle says. Let us celebrate the feast of living in Christ and sing a new canticle. Let us multiply food for those who have hunger and break the bread with those who come to us. Let us live in harmony and glorify the one who is our Lord. In all of that, Christ is revealed, for He is our Lord, and we are His people.
To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever! Amen.
Sermon preached at Christ the King, a parish of the Anglican Diocese of Rio de Janeiro, in 04/22/2007.
I borrowed the idea from Jared, and now I'm recording my sermons... If you can understand Portuguese, there it goes!
