Homily Notes 3rd Sunday of Easter-A Meal that Reconciles
3rd Sunday of Easter/ “A Meal that Reconciles”
When we share a meal with another person it personifies how we feel towards them. We find it hard to sit down to eat with those that we don’t like. Jesus dined with others many times in the Gospels.
If we were to ask Christians what Jesus’ last meal was with his disciples was, the typical response would be that Jesus’ last meal with his apostles was the Last Supper. We all know what happened at that meal. Everyone who sat around the table was not a friend of Jesus.
We remember how Jesus identified Judas at the Last Supper. People in Biblical times did not eat with knives and forks. No, they were like the poor of every era because they ate with their hands. Usually, they dipped bread into a common dish. In that dish would be a curry like substance.
One way to show friendship was to dip some bread into the dish, after which you handed it to someone at the table. The gesture mean that person was special to you. We remember that Jesus did that with Judas at the last supper. He did this to identify him, not as his friend, but his betrayer.
We also remember how the disciples did not remain steadfast in the face of Jesus’ arrest. The Last Supper was not followed up by a lot of uplifting behavior on the part of the Apostles.
The Gospel of John has a different take on when the last meal with Jesus was. We read about it in the Gospel today. Jesus’ last meal happens on the sea shore after his resurrection. The meal is really a moment of reconciliation. John does not write extensively about the last Supper. He gives no Eucharistic narrative, no words of institution.
John waits for the last meal until there can be true closure. As we read this narrative, we see that the Apostles are not sure who Jesus is until they get to the shore. The fishermen think they know who he is, but they don’t positively identify him at first. Perhaps Jesus was too far away from them. Maybe the resurrected Jesus looks different. We do not know. But when they see Jesus preparing bread and fish, they know who he is.
Jesus has come back after the Resurrection to knit his community of disciples together again. Jesus had told his disciples, after his first Resurrection appearances, to go to Galilee to wait for him. And they did do that. Jesus was true to his word. He came to be with them.
What did Galilee represent? Galilee represented the place where the disciples met Jesu for the first time. Galilee was the place where Jesus had many successes, the place where many of his miracles were performed. When the apostles walked with Jesus on the dusty roads of Galilee, they were enthusiastic. Galilee was the place where the Peter, James, John, Andrew, all the rest began their friendship with the Lord. By sending the Apostles back to Galilee Jesus was saying, in a way, we will begin again.
The Eucharist has many Theological implications. One we do not think about is that Eucharist is a Sacrament of Reconciliation. Perhaps that theology came from the Gospel we read today. For John this meal on the beach was the last one that Jesus shared with his disciples. Truly it was a Eucharistic meal. Jesus presides he breaks the bread. He hands out the food. He served his disciples again. What was it a sign of? The post Resurrection Eucharist told his disciples that their weakness was forgiven. Jesus still loved them.
We have the last dialogue between Peter and Jesus which reinforces the idea of reconciliation. The conversation Jesus has with Peter is most intimate. He says to Peter, “Peter I still love you. I trust you. Do you still love me? Do you trust me?”
What does this Theology of the Eucharist say to us? A Theology of Reconciliation says that the Eucharist is not necessarily a reward for good behavior. We don’t have the apostles apologize before they share a meal with Jesus. Jesus reads their hearts. He knows their remorse. He eats with them to show all is forgiven. By their partaking, they say they are sorry. By his eating, Jesus says all is reconciled. The Eucharistic is a reassuring sign of Christ’s divine mercy. If we believe that, then we hunger for this heavenly food. We also rejoice whenever Jesus offers it to us.