John’s Gospel this Sunday tells of the 4th post-resurrection appearance of Jesus. The first three appearances are in Jerusalem. Apparently there’s a lull, for John says that the apostles had returned to Galilee and resumed their ordinary everyday lives. I have the sense that they don’t quite know what to do with themselves given Peter’s remark “I’m going fishing.”
As an aside, I wonder what the women were doing: Mary, Jesus’ mother, Mary Magdalene, the other women who were with Jesus at his death. Somehow I just don’t think they shrugged their shoulders and went back to everyday life. Their love for Jesus was just too deep, in contrast to the apostles.
So …Jesus is by the seashore. Think of the other places where Jesus was found after the resurrection: in a cemetery garden, in a room that was locked and shuttered up, on a dusty road outside the city. Remember also where Jesus could be found before the resurrection: at a wedding, on a fishing boat, at the neighbor’s house, in the village market place, at the temple, at a well.
So too we may have special places in our lives they are special because of the memories attached to them and because they are places where our bodies and spirits are rejuvenated. So here’s the question: Are these places special because we make them so, or is it the presence of Christ there in those ordinary places that makes them special?
Our Risen Lord is everywhere. His Spirit is all around us, and if we just pause a moment and think about that wherever we are, whatever we may be doing, then suddenly we can see him and talk with him and serve him and be served by him.
The ordinary can become very sacred, but it’s up to us to make it so. If all you and I see is ordinary people, ordinary events, ordinary activities, then we might miss out on something like Jesus cooking us breakfast.
You are special to me to us!
