Jesus appearing to His Disciples in Galilee

Chapter IX: The Forty Days

I: Jesus appearing to His Disciples in Galilee

John xxi. 1-24; Matt. xxviii. 16-20; Mark xvi. 15-18.

As now the last days of the Paschal-tide were over, very many of the disciples set forth from Jerusalem to return home to Galilee.  It was there the Master had declared, even before His death, that He would precede them; and now the Angels and the Resurrected Christ Himself had reiterated his promise.  Accordingly they all hastened towards that country, selected by Jesus not without special design.  Indeed, by thus withdrawing His Presence to that region He avoided any collision with the Sanhedrin people; any solemn manifestation of Himself there was much less dangerous than at Jerusalem, where hatred kept His foes ever watchful, and ready to instantly exterminate the new-born Church, had she ventured to publish abroad the triumph of her Head.

The Apostles were the first to obey the Lord's behests, and shortly after this seven of their number chanced to be gathered on the lake shore of Genesareth.  "There were together Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the two sons of Zebedee.  The two other disciples are not named, but the presence of Peter makes us think at once of Andrew, his brother, a daughter of Philip, their fellow-townsmen and Andrew's usual companion.

The community funds, whereby their daily needs had been provided for, had disappeared with Judas.  Peter's eyes fell upon his boat and nets.

"I go a-fishing," he said.

All started up at once, replying:—

"We too will go with you."

It was near the twilight hour, the most propitious time for fishing; they started, pushed out with their boat, and for a long time trailed across those waters, whose likeliest spots they knew so well; but their efforts were fruitless; all that night they took nothing.

At dawn they were still dragging along near the banks, when they descried a man standing upon the beach.

They descried a man standing upon the beach. J-J Tissot

It was Jesus, but as yet they did not recognise Him.

" Children," said He, "have you anything to eat?"

"No," they answered Him.

"Cast the net on the right side of the boat," He said, "and you shall find."

The grave authority of the words struck the Apostles; the remembrance of a similar prodigy, happening on the same waters and at this very hour, after just such another night of barren toil, at once darted across their minds.  Instantly they cast their net, but were unable to draw it up again, so loaded down was it with fish.  At this token the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter:—

"It is the Lord!"

Peter sprang into the lake. J-J Tissot.

And Simon Peter, when he heard it was the Lord, snatched his coat and girt it about him (for during the work he had thrown off his outer garments), and, that he might rejoin the Master sooner, sprang into the lake.  The other disciples followed in the boat, dragging the net with them towards the shore, which was now only about two hundred cubits distant.

So soon, then, as they had stepped foot on land, they saw a fire of lighted coals with a fish laid thereon, and bread.

" Bring hither some of the fishes which you have caught," Jesus said to them.

The net filled with one hundred and fifty-three great fishes. J-J Tissot

Simon Peter again got into the boat and hauled the net to land, now filled full with one hundred and fifty-three great fishes; and although there were so many, the net was not broken.

Christ eating with His disciples. J-J Tissot.

"Come!" then said Jesus; "come, eat!"

The disciples sat around the fire; then the Master stepping forward, took up the bread and the meats, and passed them about among them.

Thus, then, the Apostles found themselves once more in the same familiar spot and at the Master's side, just as formerly, when in the olden days, after long hours of teaching and preaching, He would take them off by themselves, and explain to them the hidden meaning of His public discourses.  But there could be no longer on their part the same free fellowship, for now more than erstwhile He might well say that " He was no longer of this world." This thought, their very sight of their Resurrected Lord, overwhelmed the minds of all present, and this morning's meal was finished in silence.

Hardly had he come to an end, when Jesus turned toward Peter.

"Simon, son of Jonas," He said to him, "lovest thou Me more than these?"

"More than these?" what a reproach for the Apostle, ever mindful of his presumptuous and boast, – 

"Even though all should deny Thee, yet not I!"

Simon understood,— in Jesus' eyes he seemed now only the son of Jonah; " Peter" and the firmness once foretokened by that name, had disappeared.  Thinking thus, he bowed his head in grief.  

"Lord," he said humbly, " Thou knowest that I love Thee."

"Feed My lambs," replied Jesus, confirming him in his functions as the Shepherd of souls.

But for a power so lofty as this, there must needs be assured and solid foundations; wherefore Jesus again sounded the depth of Peter's heart.

"Simon, son of Jonas," He repeated, "lovest thou Me?"

This time the Master spared His Apostle any further comparison with his brethren, nor did He make allusion to his fall.  And Peter humble he bowed his head once more:

"Lord," he reiterated, " Thou knowest that I love Thee."

Then, as though the greater the trial, so much the more of confidence can be placed in his humility, Jesus said once more:—

"Guard My young sheep," thereby committing to discharge, no longer the lambs of the fall had only, but the mature a portion of the flock as well, whom henceforth he must needs both pasture and lead onward and defend from every danger.

But a third protestation of his sincerity was requisite to complete the expiation of Peter's threefold denial.

" Simon, son of Jonas," his Master demanded once again, "lovest thou Me?"

Jesus no longer asked the Apostle whether he adored Him as his God, but whether he loved Him passionately with a real warmth of charity.

Grieved at heart to hear Jesus still questioning him vast for the third time, Peter was sadly troubled.  Yet having learned at last to distrust his own strength, he threw himself upon the tender mercy of Him Who searcheth there reins and the hearts.

"Lord," he cried, "Thou knowest all things;Thou knowest that I love Thee!"

Thenceforth the humility of the son of Jonas was proven beyond doubt, and is love accounted worthy of the highest favours of God.  Where for one last sentence from the lips of Jesus made him once for all the infallible Teacher, the To judge from whom there is no appeal, the supreme Shepherd of the Church.

" Feed My sheep," Jesus saith. J-J Tissot.

" Feed My sheep," Jesus saith; no longer the lambs only, but "both the lands and the sheep,—space the mothers as well as their little ones, and the past is likewise, shepherds as regards their own people, but sheep also in the eyes of Peter." And the sheep, these past is of the nation's, must receive all things from the Prince of the cats apostles; from him they must obtain jurisdiction, power, doctrine.  In a word, or that Jesus had been to them hitherto Peter hereafter was to be, and, according to the expression consecrated by centuries of faith, was even now become the Vicar of Christ on earth.  Yet truly this commission was a dear-bought; four to walk in the likeness of Jesus it would be necessary for the Apostle to make his life the reflection of his Masters sufferings, and carry the imitation of his Model even unto the death of the Cross.

"Of a truth, of a truth, I say to thee," added the Lord, "when thou wast young thou didst walk whither thou wouldst; but when thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch forth by hands, and another shall girds thee, and lead thee whither thou wouldst not."

By these words, In John says, He meant to refer to the death whereby Peter "was to glorify God;" while at the same time they represented the entire life of the Apostle,— his fiery spirit in youth, eager to plunge into action, yet only on condition that he be allowed to be gird his loins had his own good time and pleasure; then his right by age, destined to endure the heaviest toils, wherein he would be required to renounce himself altogether, to suffer long and patiently, to bare all contradictions and opprobrium; finally his death on the Cross after the example of his divine cats master.  And all this conformity to the cap saviours life and death is comprised in the final utterance of the Christ:—

"Follow Me!"

Having spoken thus He rose up and withdrew from the circle of the Apostles.  But Peter, accepting this bidding literary, walked close behind him.  Nor was he alone; the disciple Jesus loved, he who during the Last Up and leaned upon His breath and said to Him: "Lord, who will betray Thee?"— this disciple followed also.

Peter, turning about, saw him.

"Lord," he asked, "and what shall before this one?"

"If I he will that he carried till I come," replied the Saviour, "what is that to thee?  Do thou follow Me!"

These last were as ever remained an enigma to the early believers, and gave rise to the strangest fancies; the saying soon spread abroad that the beloved of Jesus would never die.  John in his extreme old age, seeing a great credit had been placed in this fabrication, when writing the closing lines of his Gospel protested that the lord had not said: "He shall not die;" but "If I will that he tarry till I come what is that to the?" But it was useless for the Apostle to try to correct the popular misapprehension; even his death and the sight of his tomb could not undies see them.

"John but sleepeth in his sepulchre," they said; "there he waiteth the coming of the Lord, and the clouds of dust whirling above his grave bear testimony that are living breath ever quickeneth his ashes."

All that was now left the to do on earth was the fulfilment of His promise that He would manifest Himself to His disciples assembled together.  For the holding of this first Council of all Christendom He had designated a certain mountain; and here were gathered not only the eleven Apostles, but all that Jerusalem, Judaea, and it Galilee could furnish forth of faithful followers, because the Lords message had been addressed to the whole body of disciples:—

"Go and tell My brethren to go into Galilee; it is there they shall see Me!"

From Saint Paul's testimony we have it that more than five hundred were there met together.

When Jesus appeared the Apostles fell down before Him, but even in that congregation there was a movement of hesitation and Some doubted." Neither the Voice from Heaven which  had summoned them thitherwards, nor the site of the Apostles worshipping the Master, could chase away the trouble which filled their souls at witnessing this Apparition.  Still they remained standing, speechless, not daring to believe their eyes.

Jesus came forward to this anxious flock.

" All power," He said, "hath been given Me in Heaven and upon her.  Go, then, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.  Teach them to keep all things that I have commanded you, and lo!  I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the ages."

And it was not only unto men, but "to every creature" He sent them forth, thus to be the bearers of the Good News; for "all creation," fallen with Adam, "groaneth and travaileth in pain together." Jesus had forgotten nothing He had made; extending the Redemption bought for them by the Cross unto every created thing, He held forth hope and peace for all in His overflowing hands.  Saint Mark's account shows us how that regeneration is consummated by the preaching of the Gospel,—  devils flying before the very Name of Jesus, serpents and poison powerless to injure the Apostles, every ailment disappearing at the laying on of their hands.  

"Go into all the world and preache the Glad Tidings.  He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned.  And behold the signs which shall follow them that believe: They shall cast out devils in My Name; they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents" without fear of their venom, "and if they drink any deadly thing it shall in no wise hurt them; they shall lay their hands upon the sick, and the sick folk shall recover."

This appearance was but one of very many Manifestations which Jesus made of Himself during these days.  We know, likewise, that He showed Himself to James, "the brother of the Lord." Unfortunately the memory of what occurred at this event soon came to be distorted and finally grew into the legend that Saint Jerome read in the "Gospel of the Nazarenes."

" James, the first Bishop of Jerusalem, did make an oath after the Last Supper, neither to eat nor to drink until he beheld Jesus risen again from the dead.  On the morning of the day of the Resurrection, a table appeared before him furnished with food; and the Lord blessed the bread and he gave it to James, saying: 'Eat of this bread now, My brother, for the Son of Man is risen from the dead.'"

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.