Third Sunday of Easter
John 21:1-19
April 14, 2013
Jesus said to them, ‘Come, have breakfast.’… they
realized it was the Lord (John 21:12).
The best things in life are free and almost
everywhere. Life, love, peace, friendship, and good health are something people
most look for. Indeed, they are completely without any charge, but never get it
wrong, they are not cheap. Their true values dawn upon us when these simple yet
priceless things are taken away from us, and no amount of money can reclaim
them. When we suffer from insomnia, we then realize how important sleep is. We
may go shopping to malls around, and procure a cozy king-size bed, but no shop
can afford you a tight and natural sleep.
Unfortunately, because they are free of
charge and oftentimes within our grasp, we prone to take them for granted.
Oftentimes, they are richly abound and ordinary that we lose sight of their
worth. Worse, we tag them as ‘usual’, ‘monotonous’ and even ‘boring’. Who among
us truly appreciate our mother who everyday wakes up early morning to prepare a
good breakfast for the entire family or value the regularity of our heartbeat? We
fail to look after them and finally they slip pass through our hands. And,
worst come to worst, we begin overlooking the most important reality in our
life, God Himself, the Meaning of all meanings, simply because He is so
‘ordinary’.
Fr. Roberto Reyes, a Filipino activist
priest, recently marks that the sharp decline of church-goers is due to the
‘dull’ homilies and ‘dry’ liturgy. If Catholics move away from the Church
because her liturgy is ‘tedious’, and thus, the ‘God’ the Church tries to offer
must be a ‘boring’ one, Fr. Reyes would conclude. I do not totally agree with
him, but there is a grain of truth in what Fr. Reyes expressed. We are so
immersed in the mass media that every second spoon-feed us with instant and extremely
sensual entertainments. Our generation constantly craves for something that
amazes us and becomes so impatient with the ‘ordinary’ and ‘regular’. The
looming danger is that we are easily irked by ‘ordinariness of life’ and
especially by the ‘humble and slow-paced’ God.
The disciples in today’s Gospel carry us to
another level of understanding God. They invite us to recognize God even in the
simplicity and regularity of life. They encounter the Lord in a humble
breakfast meal (John21:12)! The gesture of breaking the bread and sharing the
fish are nothing but familiar, but the same gesture reveals the Risen Lord! The
best things in life do not display any extraordinariness, but in their
lowliness they unveil life and the source of life itself, God.
Be patient enough when the liturgy is
rather ‘repetitious’ and the homilies turn to be the medicine for insomnia,
since it does not mean God is absent. His grace just works and forms us in most
humble ways, even beyond our consciousness. It will be presumptuous if you
instantly change after reading this reflection, but I hope that my constant
sending of reflections would contribute a little piece to that gradual
transformation in God’s grace. Why don’t we pause a moment and count tremendous
blessing we receive thorough free yet best things in life: our friends, family,
educators, co-workers and even unknown farmers that planted the rice we
eventually consume. God reveals Himself and shapes us through these ordinary
and simple gestures, which turn to be the best things in life.
Br.
Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP
Great!!!
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