May 4, 2025

Third Sunday of Easter Cycle C

Acts 5:27-32, 40-41; Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-19

A month or so ago, before Easter, I talked about a recent trend in movies, that is to say the trend to go back and do prequels to hit movies, the back story behind the people involved. Today, we should talk about the older trend, that of the sequel, following the characters later on from the initial story. I say this because we have in the First Reading and in the Gospel sequels of the events we just celebrated at Easter.

First the Gospel, since it happens first chronologically. And according to most biblical scholars, this is a sequel, or at least an appendix, to the Gospel of John. We read the end of John chapter twenty last week, and the evangelist seems to be ending his gospel, talking about there are more things that had happened in the life of Jesus than what he has written, but that he wrote these that we might believe. It sounds like an epilogue to the Gospel, but then, we get one more chapter from John, chapter twenty-one, the chapter from which our Gospel today is taken. One theory is that the evangelist might have received some feedback after people read an earlier draft and decided that he needed to add some additional details. And here is the reason some site: writing some fifty or more years after the death of Jesus, John was witnessing the rapid growth of the new Church that Christ had founded and the apostles were proclaiming. In the things that Jesus did that were left out of his Gospel, were there some that seemed less important at John's first writing that now seemed more important? Many scholars believe that this additional chapter indicates that yes, some teachings that were directives to the apostles concerning their mission to bring the good news to everyone and to lead his new Church now had importance beyond that of the early zeal of spreading the word.

This Gospel reading is one of the great passages from scripture that describe Jesus' direction to the leaders that will take his place after his ascension. He is talking to all of us, of course, since we all accept as part of our baptism the anointing of oil to make us priests, prophets, and kings, and therefore are all called to leadership within our own spheres of influence to bring Christ's message to those around us. But he is especially addressing the apostles here. They have returned to Galilee, as the risen Christ told them to through the women at the tomb Easter morning [Matthew 28:10]. He is telling them to cast their nets to catch fish, and they catch 153 of them. Some biblical scholars believe that 153 was the number of nations that existed at that time, so this is symbolic, at the end of his earthly ministry, back to the beginning of it, where he promises to make the apostles fishers of men, preachers of the good news, to all areas of the earth. Jesus especially tasks Peter, as head of the apostles, to feed his sheep.

Then in the First Reading, we see Peter and other disciples standing before the great ruling body of the Jewish people in Jerusalem, the Sanhedrin, and defying their efforts to stamp out the newly formed Church, although they would not have yet called it that. They were still hoping that the entire Jewish people would acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah and follow the new way that he had shown his disciples. And that is the story of this sequel known as the Acts of the Apostles, Luke's history of the Church that he tells in his follow-on to the Gospel that he had written. And the story in Acts is the rejection by most of the Jewish people of Jesus and his teachings and the subsequent creation of the new Church. And Peter plays a significant role in this creation, if not the most significant, as one would expect of a person that Jesus made the rock upon which he would build his Church.

Now these sequels have a lot to tell us about the time right after the resurrection and the subsequent founding of the Church, but it also has a lot to tell us today, sitting here in our own sequel that is the modern Church, our Church. Of topical note is the fact that the cardinals within our Church will be electing the 267th successor to Peter, a sequel that has not yet been written. Our new leader could bring the moral clarity of Pope Saint John Paul II to a world that had faced and was still facing the twin godless systems of fascism and communism. Our new leader could bring the theological clarity of Pope Benedict XVI to a world that thinks that Jesus is a philosopher and his message is just to be happy. Our new leader could bring the humanitarian clarity of Pope Francis to a world that reduces every calculus in life to an economic decision and blurs the moral aspects of the decision's impact on others. Our new leader, because of his love of the Lord, just like Peter, will bring his own emphasis to a world that continual needs to be fed, sheep that need a shepherd to call out clearly what it means to live a moral life, a Christian life.

But let's not stop there. As I have often pointed out, it is easy to say what “they” should do. What is our part in this sequel? We are not passive extras in a movie, the epic saga that is the Kingdom of God, the Christian faith left to us by Christ. The Gospel has Jesus speaking to Peter directly about the importance of leading the flock, but in reality it is not a new message. It is the same message to love God and one another, to bring that love to others, especially the neediest, that he has made throughout his earthly life. Similarly, the year of evangelization that has been called by our bishop is not a new call but a renewal of the call we were all given when we were anointed priests, prophets, and kings at our baptisms. After Pentecost, we see Peter take up the mantle given to him by Christ and boldly proclaim the good news. We are called today to also take up the mantle, not in a formal leadership position but in our interactions with those we encounter. Peter is told: “Feed my sheep.” If we do not hear that same message by Christ to us, we have missed a fundamental reason that Christ formed a Church in the first place.

As we continue with our Mass, let this communion we receive strengthen our resolve to feed the sheep around us. Let us pray for our Church and especially for the cardinals that will be electing a new pope, that they will find a worthy successor of Peter, John Paul, Benedict, and Francis. Let us follow our new pope, as well as our bishop, our pastor, and all our leaders, that we may make this sequel in which we all star a worthy successor to those first Christians, who did indeed answer Christ's call to feed his sheep.