May 4, 2025 – The Third Sunday of Easter [C]

Fr. Matthew Siegman
Acts 5:27-32,40-41  +  Revelation 5:11-14  +  John 21:1-19

As we continue to meditate on the mysteries of the Resurrection during the Easter Season, we hear St. John’s account of Jesus’s third appearance after his Resurrection. I tell people that this is one of my favorite passages of scripture, because in John 21:12, Jesus says to the disciples, “Come, have breakfast.” Now this is a man who knows how to get people to join him! All joking aside, the Church has given us such extraordinary readings this Sunday that each of them could be the source of multiple homilies. In the Acts of the Apostles, the apostles fearlessly preach the Resurrection of Jesus, the Christ. In Revelation, St. John gives us a glimpse of Heaven. In the first portion of St. John’s Gospel, we see the bountiful generosity of our Lord. In the second portion, included in the long form, we see Jesus allowing St. Peter to make reparation–to make amends–for his three-fold denial of Jesus at the Crucifixion. Let’s look at each of these a little closer.

We encounter the apostles being questioned by the same Sanhedrin who had condemned Jesus to death in our first reading. The Sanhedrin had commanded them to stop preaching the Resurrection, but their response is “We must obey God rather then men. The God of our ancestors raised Jesus, though you had him killed by hanging him on a tree.” Not only do they refuse to be intimidated, but they preach the Resurrection to the Sanhedrin! Just this one verse reminds us that God’s laws are always superior to man’s laws. While we should cooperate with governments and follow just laws, we cannot follow laws that violate the laws of God. This should also remind us that we are Catholic Christians first and citizens of a country second. (Actually, family is second and country is third, but I digress.) Second, when the apostles remind the Sanhedrin that they hung Jesus on a tree, they are calling to mind Deuteronomy 21:23, which says, “anyone who is hanged is a curse of God.” The implication here is that someone is left hanging on a tree in a public display after their execution has been cursed. But Jesus took the curse of sin, which is death, on himself and carried it for all humanity in order to free us from the slavery of sin and death. So not only did the Sanhedrin fail in making Jesus an object of public ridicule, but out of the horrific evil they inflicted on Jesus, God brought about the ultimate good: the salvation of mankind!The Sanhedrin’s own actions eventually resulted in the Resurrection, which they are now trying to cover up!

Revelation is a challenging book to understand, but two pieces of information can assist us in comprehending it. First, it is the account of the salvation of mankind from the perspective of Heaven. Second, it is an account of the Mass from the same Heavenly perspective. Either way, Revelation comes from the perspective of Heaven, and also it implies that the salvation of mankind and the Mass are linked with one another. Today’s passage from Revelation reveals that angels and men worship the Lamb who seemed to have been slain, but is living, together. To this Lamb of God, all is given, for through his sacrifice his is worthy of all honor, glory, and blessing. This Lamb is Jesus who offered himself as a sacrificial victim to save mankind from the slavery of sin and its result: death.

In St. John’s Gospel, Simon Peter leads a number of the apostles on a fishing trip. They fail to catch a single thing. I always imagine that after the death of Jesus, this failure was particularly painful for the apostles, who had been fishermen before meeting Jesus. But he had called them to something greater: They were no longer called to be fishermen. They fail to recognize Jesus on the shore, but that changes when he gives them a miraculous catch of fish. This was the same miracle Jesus performed when he called Simon Peter (see Luke 5:1-11). This time, instead of responding, “depart from me, for I am a sinful man,” Simon Peter leaps out of the boat and rushes to Jesus as soon as he hears “It is the Lord!” We are all sinful, and often our first response to Jesus is “depart from me, for I am sinful!” But Simon Peter teaches us that the best response is, instead, to rush toward the Lord who is merciful and who loves us. He is the one who can heal us. Simon Peter needed much healing. He had denied Jesus at his Crucifixion and, even after seeing Jesus twice after the Passion, still tried to return to his former way of life. And the second portion of today’s Gospel show us how Jesus gave Simon Peter exactly the healing that he needed.

Jesus asks Simon Peter, three times, “Do you love me?” When Simon Peter says yes, Jesus gives instructs him to feed and tend his flock. Simon Peter, in reparation for his denial of Jesus, is given the chance to express his love for Jesus. This love will be expressed not by words–anybody can say he or she loves a person–but by actions. Simon Peter will love Jesus by tending and feeding his flock, by being a shepherd of the followers of Jesus. This image, God placing a shepherd over his people, was used to describe the Davidic kings, for example in Ezekiel 37:24, God says, “David my servant shall be a king over them; they shall all have one shepherd.” Jesus continues, telling Simon Peter that he will, indeed, follow in the path of the Cross as Simon Peter promised to do before the Passion. Finally, Jesus says Simon Peter, “Follow me.” This is the most important command of them all: To love Jesus, to shepherd his flock, and to follow the path of the Cross, Simon Peter will have to follow Jesus in all that he does and stay close to him. In following Jesus every day for the rest of his life, Simon Peter will be doing what he failed to do at the Cross. May we all have the courage to repent like St. Peter did!

This week, we see the Lord’s glory in Revelation, we see his generosity in the Gospel not just in providing breakfast, but also in his forgiveness and in giving us grace for repentance, and we see the result of a life lived as followers of Jesus: that we will have the courage to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, no matter what we might face.