Acts 5:27b-32.40b-41; Ps 29 (30); Rev 5.11-14; Jn 21.1-19

If we look at Peter in the entire gospel narrative, we can easily see how being a fisherman is the shape of his following. In Luke, it is the sign that lies at the origin of his call; John he narrates his last encounter with the Risen One, which opens already onto the time of the Church. The evangelist’s way of telling is in fact imbued with a sacramental symbolism. Peter must be thrown into the waters of the sea and then come up again, to lead his fish-filled net to Jesus. He draws the net to the ground with the same verb, in Greek, with which Jesus prophesies: “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself “(Jn 12:32). Jesus attracts us to himself by his Easter; Peter draws us to Jesus with his baptismal conformation to the Crucified and Risen Christ. Moreover, as he had denied the Lord around a fire, so, still around a fire, he now professes his love. And on this fire there is the Eucharistic symbolism of bread and fish. The Eucharist is the memory of the life of Jesus offered for us, forgiving us by allowing us to love as we have been loved, despite the nakedness of our sin. Baptism and the Eucharist continue to accompany the journey of the Christian community, making it capable of announcing Easter in obedience to God and not to men.

Commentary by Comunità di Dumenza

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey