Jesus said to them, “Children, have you caught anything to eat?” They answered him, “No.” So he said to them, “Cast the net over the right side of boat and you will find something.” (John 5-6)
As they saw the fish leaping into their net, straining it to the breaking point, the disciples must have had a sense of déjà vu. Three years before, sinking boats and torn nets had led them to abandon fishing altogether and to follow Jesus instead. Awed by the size of their catch and by Jesus’ uncanny ability to predict good fishing grounds, they left everything behind – their parents, their boats, their whole way of life.
Now, Jesus does it again. After a night of catching nothing but cold, they follow his direction on where to cast their nets and haul in another huge catch. But something’s different this time. Just as the two disciples on the road to Emmaus don’t recognize him at first until the breaking of the bread, these disciples don’t recognize him either until they catch all those fish.
What the Emmaus sighting and this one on the Sea of Galilee have in common is that that they happen after Easter. Transfigured in glory from an earthly to a spiritual existence, Jesus is no longer recognizable as before. He’s different now. The risen Christ is recognizable in a radically new way – he is experienced in the ordinary circumstances of life.
Scripture doesn’t describe the Resurrection for obvious reasons. No one was there to see it, and by its very nature as a cosmic, supernatural event, outside the created order of time and space, it’s not provable or disprovable historically. What can be shown, however, is what some call the crater left by the explosion. We can consider, for example, stories about the faith of the disciples, like the one in today’s gospel from John, who witnessed the post-resurrection Jesus in a wondrous new way. A way which transformed their fear and confusion over his terrible death into experiences of him alive – the same Jesus, but now spiritual in form. We can also consider the fact that experiences of a handful of illiterate peasants in first century Judea, followers of an itinerate preacher crucified as an enemy of the state, spawned a Jesus movement which grew into the largest religion in the world and changed the course of human history.
And, of course, we can consider our own experiences of Jesus alive and present in our lives. Non-believers won’t understand, but as a sage once said. “The heart knows what the head cannot comprehend.” To those with faith no explanation is necessary, to those without faith, no explanation is possible.
When Christians say Jesus rose from the dead, we don’t mean that his corpse was resuscitated or that he came back to life as we know it. Advances in science teach us that components of the human body, because they’re continually being replaced, can’t be reconstituted after death. Every atom and every gene is in a constant state of flux that involves an endless series of little deaths and fresh beginnings. That, after all, is what the aging process is all about. The body we’re born with is vastly different from the one we take to our grave.
Until recently, matter – especially the human body – was considered to be made up of solid material. Seen this way, the notion of a transfigured, spiritualized body seems to be the stuff of science fiction. “Spiritualized body,” in fact, sounds like an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms. But matter today is understood to be a form of energy and new studies in physics, chemistry, and biology reveal that the relationship between matter and energy is far more complex and mysterious than ever imagined.
Ultimately, however, belief in the Resurrection isn’t provable scientifically or historically, it’s an issue of faith based on eyewitness accounts of what Jesus said and did up to and including Good Friday and spiritualized experiences of Him by countless people down through the ages, after Easter Sunday. Christianity, you see, is way of perceiving reality based on experiencing Jesus as alive and present in a timeless “here and now.”
For me, when I’m paying attention, experiences of Jesus alive and present happen all the time. Just the other day, for example, one happened in my courtroom Brittany, a 20 year old, who’s been appearing before me since age 13 or 14, first as an adolescent with serious acting out problems, then as an unwed neglectful mother, was once again on my morning docket. This time, however, it was a happy occasion. The Department of Social Services was petitioning to have Brittany’s three year old daughter, Brianna, who’s been in foster care pursuant to my order since shortly after birth, returned to Brittany. Brianna, an adorable toddler with braided hair, was sitting on her foster mother’s lap.
Brittany has had a hard life. Abandoned by her father, removed from her drug addicted and prostitute mother whose parental right were eventually terminated, both under my order, Brittany grew up in various foster homes. As an understandably angry teenager who behaved very badly, I ordered her placed in a residential treatment facility for emotionally troubled youngsters, where she remained for close to two years. Lacking family resources, she was finally released from placement into what is euphemistically called in the child welfare community – “independent living.” Living on her own, following an all too predictable pattern that I’ve observed over and over again in my 17 plus years as a family court judge, she soon became pregnant out of wedlock and gave birth. The intergenerational pattern of family dysfunction continued when I signed the order removing the infant Brianna from Brittany’s care and placed her child in foster care
But the story has a happy ending. On that day in court Brianna was to be returned to Brittany who had made a remarkable turn around. Now drug free, gainfully employed, working toward a degree in social work, support network in place, and demonstrating good parenting skills, it was time for Brittany to resume the role of mother. After complementing her on her hard work and telling her how pleased I was to be returning Brianna to her, Brittany said something I didn’t expect.
“Judge Sciolino,” she said, “I want to shake your hand.” Taken aback, I replied, “Of course Brittany, but I want a hug.” To the chagrin of my deputies, as it’s a breach of security to get off the bench and go forward into the public area, I did just that. It was as we hugged and a tear formed in the corner of my eye that I experienced the Risen Lord.
Catholic spirituality today is much less concerned with dogma, rules, and rituals than in the past. Catholics today experience God in nature, in the arts, in relationships, in community, as we reach out in love to one another. Modern day Catholic spirituality is located less in beliefs and traditions and more in perceiving our interrelatedness as brothers and sister in Christ; more in realizing that we have an important role to play in God’s plan for the world.
This week-end Fr. Mike celebrates his silver jubilee as a priest. At ordination by Bishop Hogan at St. Anne’s Church in Hornell twenty five years ago he chose a symbol for his unfolding priestly ministry. It was the rainbow, a universal symbol of God’s love, displayed today on the stoles he and I are wearing and on the banners behind the altar. On behalf of our entire parish community I congratulate you, Fr. Mike, on twenty five years of serving God’s people, helping us and so many others experience the Risen Lord in our lives.
Let’s make this milestone celebration of Fr. Mike’s priesthood an occasion to rededicate ourselves to being more open to experiencing God in our lives and to working harder to be channels through which others experience God in theirs.
Anthony J. Sciolino
3rd Sunday of Easter
April 25, 2004. (Cycle C)
Acts 5:27-32
Revelation 5:11-14
John 21:1-19.