Emmock’s blog follows the daily bible readings of the Catholic Church

 Reading 1, Acts 4:1-12

1 While they were still talking to the people the priests came up to them, accompanied by the captain of the Temple and the Sadducees. 2 They were extremely annoyed at their teaching the people the resurrection from the dead by proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus. 3 They arrested them, and, as it was already late, they kept them in prison till the next day. 4 But many of those who had listened to their message became believers; the total number of men had now risen to something like five thousand.

 5 It happened that the next day the rulers, elders and scribes held a meeting in Jerusalem 6 with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, Jonathan, Alexander and all the members of the high-priestly families. 7 They made the prisoners stand in the middle and began to interrogate them, ‘By what power, and by whose name have you men done this?’

 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, addressed them, ‘Rulers of the people, and elders! 9 If you are questioning us today about an act of kindness to a cripple and asking us how he was healed, 10 you must know, all of you, and the whole people of Israel, that it is by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, and God raised from the dead, by this name and by no other that this man stands before you cured. 11 This is the stone which you, the builders, rejected but which has become the cornerstone. Only in him is there salvation; 12 for of all the names in the world given to men, this is the only one by which we can be saved.’

 Luke is writing some fifty years after the events, using a variety of sources for his information. When he has Peter refer to “Jesus Christ”, he is either using the terminology of his own day, or we must translate, “Jesus Messiah”. Certainly the routine use of the Greek word “christ” for “messiah” does not belong to the first months of the Christian faith. This is important because the incident turns of the question of a name. The apostles are asked, “In what name did you heal this man?” This is a crucial question as the use of any name, other than the unspeakable Holy Name of God, would have been witchcraft, punishable by death. Peter tells them that the name of Jesus is not witchcraft-God has raised him from death and therefore authorised the use of his name. The religious leaders, the “builders of the Temple” have rejected this stone, but is has become the cornerstone of God’s house.

 We know, from Luke’s own story and from Paul, that Peter, at this point in his work, was not yet convinced that gentiles could be admitted to the Christian community, so Luke’s ringing announcement that in Christ there is universal salvation is historically a little premature. Luke means that of the “names” which represent “divine power” in the beliefs of humanity, only Jesus, the one raised from death, can rescue us from death. Luke’s Christianity is uncompromising in its relation to other beliefs: only trust in Jesus will work. We may disagree with Luke, but it’s clear what he thought.

 Gospel, Jn 21:1-14

1 Later on, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples. It was by the Sea of Tiberias, and it happened like this: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two more of his disciples were together.

 3 Simon Peter said, ‘I’m going fishing.’ They replied, ‘We’ll come with you.’ They went out and got into the boat but caught nothing that night.

 4 When it was already light, there stood Jesus on the shore, though the disciples did not realise that it was Jesus. 5 Jesus called out, ‘Haven’t you caught anything, friends?’ And when they answered, ‘No,’ 6 he said, ‘Throw the net out to starboard and you’ll find something.’ So they threw the net out and could not haul it in because of the quantity of fish.

 7 The disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord.’ At these words, ‘It is the Lord,’ Simon Peter tied his outer garment round him (for he had nothing on) and jumped into the water. 8 The other disciples came on in the boat, towing the net with the fish; they were only about a hundred yards from land.

 9 As soon as they came ashore they saw that there was some bread there and a charcoal fire with fish cooking on it. 10 Jesus said, ‘Bring some of the fish you have just caught.’ 11 Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net ashore, full of big fish, one hundred and fifty-three of them; and in spite of there being so many the net was not broken.

 12 Jesus said to them, ‘Come and have breakfast.’ None of the disciples was bold enough to ask, ‘Who are you?’. They knew quite well it was the Lord. 13 Jesus then stepped forward, took the bread and gave it to them, and the same with the fish. 

14 This was the third time that Jesus revealed himself to the disciples after rising from the dead.

John is a master storyteller, and there are endless subtleties in this one.

 At one level the disciples are the church fishing for converts and getting nowhere until Jesus offers his presence and guidance. Sometimes the church becomes obsessed with its own evangelism, but in this spirit it catches nothing. It may even think it has a catch, this is an illusion. Only when the church acknowledges the presence and direction of the living Lord, can it find those to whom it has been sent.

 At another level, the disciples are the church fishing for food. All through the dark night they find nothing and their labour is in vain. When the morning comes, however, the Lord of life stands, on the margin of time and eternity, offering them nourishment. In the darkness of the world, we find no true food; in the daylight of Jesus’ risen power, we are fed.

a modern use of this story-with help from Acker Bilk