Sunday Meditation: Seeing the Father Through Jesus

The final three Sundays of the Easter season, leading to Pentecost Sunday, are devoted to highlighting Jesus’s Last Discourse sermon in John’s Gospel.  On the Fifth Sunday of Easter in Year A we get Jesus explaining He is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”  Three years ago I embedded Dr. Brant Pitre’s exegesis of this phrase.  But when the apostle Phillip asks Jesus to reveal the Father, Jesus gives another important response about seeing the Father in seeing Jesus.  Jesus is the living face of the Father.  But it’s even deeper than that.  Jesus goes on to say that the Father is in Him and He in the Father.  Here is the perfect image of the Trinity.  While there are three persons in God, it is One God because there is a sharing of the Godhead. 

So what is the face of the Father that we see in Jesus?  Gina Hens-Piazza, reflecting on this passage for America Media, sums it up nicely:

 

Thus, the fullness of Jesus’ humanity reveals the very nature of God. In Jesus’ compassion for the widow whose son had died (Lk 7:12-15), in his forgiveness of a woman caught in adultery (Jn 8:1-11), in his healing a paralytic man (Mt 9:1-8), in his healing of a man with a withered hand in spite of strict religious obstacles (Mt 12:9-14, Mk 3:1-6, Lk 6:6-11), in his determination to eat with a man known to have questionable background as a tax collector (Mt 9:10-17, Mk 2:15-22, Lk 5:29-39), and in his encounter with a Samaritan woman, to whom he first revealed his divine identity (Jn 4:4-42), humanity sees the true character of God.

 

 

 

Today’s Gospel:

 

 

Jesus said to his disciples:

"Do not let your hearts be troubled.

You have faith in God; have faith also in me.

In my Father's house there are many dwelling places.

If there were not,

would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?

And if I go and prepare a place for you,

I will come back again and take you to myself,

so that where I am you also may be.

Where I am going you know the way."

Thomas said to him,

"Master, we do not know where you are going;

how can we know the way?"

Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

If you know me, then you will also know my Father.

From now on you do know him and have seen him."

Philip said to him,

"Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us."

Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you for so long a time

and you still do not know me, Philip?

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own.

The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.

Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me,

or else, believe because of the works themselves.

Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do,

and will do greater ones than these,

because I am going to the Father."

~Jn:14: 1-12

 

 

I found Fr. Cajetan Cuddy’s homily fascinating.  Fr, Cajetan seems to delve into some of the more complex theology in his homilies but here he says Jesus is simple and direct.

 

Fr. Cajetan:

In the midst of this storm of information and of data and of pixels, we want clarity…This is supremely true in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He responds concisely, pithily, truthfully, with concision and precision: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.” 

 

Jesus identifies himself as the way, Himself as the truth, Himself as the life.  And yet there remain a plethora of ways, truths, and different lifestyles, claiming that there are other ways, other truths, other lifestyles that are consonant with what our Lord and who He was and indeed even who he is.  The evident problem with the responses of pluralism and diversity that diverge, not culturally different, personally different, but essentially different from what our Lord Himself revealed is that they don’t provide a cipher through which everyone can cut through all of the diverging claims about what it means to follow Jesus.  In other words, the fog of ideas and contradictory claims don’t bring precision. They don’t bring concision, and they don’t bring salvation, because salvation is precise, it is concise, it is simple, and it’s Jesus Himself. 

 

Jesus does not offer one path among many. He offers Himself. The confusion of the modern world cannot be resolved by more analysis or more perspectives, but only by returning to Christ.

 

How do we follow Jesus?  Turn to Him.  We are not saved by analysis or diverging viewpoints.  We are saved by Him.

For the pastoral homily, I will return to Archbishop Edward Weisenburger.  The Archbishop points out that in this scene Jesus is preparing the disciples for His departure.

 

 

Archbishop Weisenburger:

As the discussion continues, Thomas, it seems somewhat exasperated, blurts out, "Lord, just show us the way to the Father and that will be enough  for us." Jesus responds with those beautiful words, "How long have I been with you, Thomas, and still, you do not know me? Thomas, I am the way."  Okay, brothers and sisters, the meaning of that little phrase, "I am the way," holds a meaning that makes all the difference.  You see, in the first century of Judaism, the phrase "the way" was a metaphor for "life with God."  Today, we might call "the way" something more like "the spiritual journey" or "the life of faith." But the phrase was indeed a common one and very specific.  It seems Jesus is asserting that He alone the fullness of life with God. He alone has opened the door to heaven for all of humanity.

 

…I almost hear an echo of the anxious and frightened Thomas today.  His words, Thomas' 2,000 years ago, were, "Lord, we do not know where you are going.  How can we know the way?" Today, coming from our mouths, it might sound more like, "Lord, where in the world are we going, because it seems we have lost our way."  And for many in the fear, anxiety and struggles of today, what some have lost still goes back to that original meaning of "the way." It seems that some have lost the very relationship with God. And yet, if we listen attentively, does Jesus not respond to us today with   the same comforting words He first offered Thomas, and through Thomas, to all of us?  "Thomas, I am the way. I am the way."

 

Brothers and sisters, Jesus' words this weekend are powerful and critical.  We must not let any fears or anxieties of the day dampen our spirits or compromise our courage, our perseverance, and our determination. For while He has left us to take His place at the right hand of the Father, He is profoundly and wonderfully with us and remains with us forever.  And those who are on the way with Him can never be lost.

 

Again, Jesus is the way, and when you realize this, truly realize it, your heart will no longer be troubled.

 

 

Sunday Meditation: "Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?”

 

This is such beautiful hymn, “I Received the Living God,” performed by The Cathedral Singers.

 

The Lyrics:

Refrain:

I received the living God,

and my heart is full of joy.

I received the living God,

and my heart is full of joy.

 

Jesus said: "I am the Bread

Kneaded long to give you life;

You who will partake of me

Need not ever fear to die." [Refrain]

 

Jesus said: "I am the Way,

And my Father longs for you;

So I come to bring you home

To be one with him anew." [Refrain]

 

Jesus said: "I am the Truth;

If you follow close to me,

You will know me in your heart,

And my word shall make you free." [Refrain]

 

Jesus said: "I am the Life

Far from whom no thing can grow,

But receive this living bread,

And my Spirit you shall know." [Refrain]

Retreat With St. Catherine of Siena: Day 2, “Self-Knowledge”

Day 1 was actually a Lenten Retreat with St. Catherine, but since Lent is over and today is St. Catherine’s Feast Day (April 29^th), I am going to call these future posts as Retreats with St. Catherine.

 

What is self-knowledge?  From Marriam-Webster’s Dictionary:

“knowledge or understanding of one's own capabilities, character, feelings, or motivations : self-understanding”

To reach self-knowledge, one needs a fair amount of introspection. 

What exactly are you striving for spiritually when you are seeking self-knowledge?  Knowing one’s capability in shooting basketball foul shots will not exactly lead you to understand your relationship with God. 

Also, related to self-knowledge, but in an inverse way, is self-absorption.  When does meditating on one’s self-understanding cross over into self-absorption?

St. Catherine of Siena has a lot to say on these questions.  From Elizabeth A. Dreyer’s, Living the Truth in Love: A Retreat with Catherine of Siena.

 

From the Introduction:

[Catherine] was certainly no stranger to the lure of selfishness.  She cautions her readers over and over again that the great enemy of the spiritual life is self-preoccupation.  She writes, “Every scandal, hatred, cruelty, and everything unbecoming springs from the root of selfish love” (The Dialogue, Trans. Suzzane Noffke, New York: Paulist Press, p.35).  Terms like “selfish self-centeredness,” “selfish sensuality,” “self-complacency” and “self-opinionatedness” pepper her texts.  (p. 34)

On this second day of retreat, we reflect on the human condition as the great contrast with the reality of God.  We delve into a most basic truth about ourselves—that we are creatures, not the Creator; sinners, not the sinless One.   (p. 34)

Opening Prayer:

Ineffable Creator

…

You are proclaimed

The true font of light and wisdom

And the primal origin

Raised beyond all things.

Pour forth a ray of Your brightness

into the darkened places of my mind;

disperse from my soul

the twofold darkness

into which i was born:

sin and ignorance.

 [The Prayers of Catherine of Siena, Ed. Suzanne Noffke, New York: Pualist Press, 1983, p.82]

 

Spiritual Talk:

Three quotes out of the retreat talk.

Catherine’s works are full of references to self-knowledge and knowledge of God.  Often she places both phrases in the same sentence, since she sees them intimately related to each other.  Perhaps because she spent three years in solitary prayer in her room in her parent’s home, she often refers to the “cell” or the “house” of self-knowledge.  She may also have felt compelled to emphasize the “cell within” to counter her critics, who would have preferred to have her in her cell than traveling about Europe, conversing with popes and princes.  In a letter to her first spiritual director, Tommaso della Fonte, she describes the “cell of the soul” as a well in which there is both earth [our poverty] and living water [the very core of the knowledge of God’s will that we be made holy] (The Letters of St. Catherine of Siena.  Vol 1, Trans. Suzzane Noffke, p. 44).  One comes to know oneself by turning inward in quiet reflection.  She encourages us to enter into the depths of this well, into loving transformation.  (p. 36)

In order to force us to confront our sinfulness with honesty and courage, [Catherine] employs a rather dramatic metaphor.  She compares sin to leprosy (Dialogue, p.180).  Adam’s sin, she says, oozed with deadly pus, until the incarnation effected a cure, draining the pus out of Adam’s sin, leaving only its scar (Dialogue, p.52).  No doubt this imagery was impressed on Catherine’s mind as she went about nursing those who suffered from plague and other diseases.  (p.37)

Catherine’s insistence on self-knowledge bears the mark of her intense personality.  Nowhere is this more visible than in her awareness of her own sinfulness.  In her Prayers, she is constantly juxtaposing her sinfulness and the sinfulness of the world with God’s loving mercy.  The phrase, “I have sinned against the Lord; have mercy on me!” runs like a leitmotif throughout.  In a letter to two of her friends, Catherine writes, “I, Caterina, a useless servant, am in agony with desire as I searched the depths of my soul; I grieve and weep when I see and really understand our foolish apathy, our failure to give our love to God after God has given us such great graces with so much love” (The Letters of St. Catherine of Siena.  Vol 1, Trans. Suzzane Noffke, p. 80).  (p.40-1)

Catherine’s self-knowledge—her sinfulness, her smallness in the face of the Creator, and her sinfulness with respect to God’s purity—leads her to write from the mouth of God the eternal Father spoken to Catherine: "Do you know, daughter, who you are and who I am? If you know these two things you will have beatitude within your grasp.  You are she who is not, and I AM HE WHO IS." (Raymond of Capua, Life of Catherine of Siena, 92).  Knowledge of self for Catherine requires the awareness that one is not God and that God is many things she is not.

For Reflection:

Throughout her Prayers, Catherine repeats over and over again: “I have sinned against the Lord.  Have mercy on me!  Do not look at our sins, all-powerful, compassionate, merciful God.”

Closing Prayer:

“Cancel out our sin today, then,

O true God,

and wash our soul’s face

with your only begotten Son’s blood,

poured out for us,

so that dead to ourselves

and living for him

we may offer him a return for his suffering

with bright face and undivided soul.”

              (Prayers, p. 65)

 

Sunday Meditation: The Shepherd Calls His Sheep

The Gospel passage for the Fourth Sunday of Easter is always on a section of Chapter 10 of John’s Gospel, the chapter of the Good Shepherd.  Year A has the beginning of the chapter where Jesus compares Himself to the gate and gatekeeper of the sheep pen.  Three years ago I embedded a wonderful exegesis from Dr. Brant Pitre.  It is worth going back to hear it.  The key is understanding the Old Testament allusion Jesus is making from Ezekial.  The bad sheep are the past leaders of Israel.

To the shepherds, thus says the Lord GOD: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who have been pasturing themselves! Should not shepherds pasture the flock?  You consumed milk, wore wool, and slaughtered fatlings, but the flock you did not pasture.  You did not strengthen the weak nor heal the sick nor bind up the injured. You did not bring back the stray or seek the lost but ruled them harshly and brutally.  So they were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and became food for all the wild beasts.  They were scattered and wandered over all the mountains and high hills; over the entire surface of the earth my sheep were scattered. No one looked after them or searched for them.  (Ez 34:2-6)

And Ezekial goes on to say that God Himself will one day shepherd the people.

 

For thus says the Lord GOD: Look! I myself will search for my sheep and examine them.  As a shepherd examines his flock while he himself is among his scattered sheep, so will I examine my sheep. I will deliver them from every place where they were scattered on the day of dark clouds.  I will lead them out from among the peoples and gather them from the lands; I will bring them back to their own country and pasture them upon the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and every inhabited place in the land.  In good pastures I will pasture them; on the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down on good grazing ground; in rich pastures they will be pastured on the mountains of Israel.  I myself will pasture my sheep; I myself will give them rest—oracle of the Lord GOD.  (Ez 34: 11-15)

 

 

Today’s Gospel:

 

 

Jesus said:

"Amen, amen, I say to you,

whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate

but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.

But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.

The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice,

as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has driven out all his own,

he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him,

because they recognize his voice.

But they will not follow a stranger;

they will run away from him,

because they do not recognize the voice of strangers."

Although Jesus used this figure of speech,

the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell them.

 

So Jesus said again, "Amen, amen, I say to you,

I am the gate for the sheep.

All who came before me are thieves and robbers,

but the sheep did not listen to them.

I am the gate.

Whoever enters through me will be saved,

and will come in and go out and find pasture.

A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy;

I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly."

~Jn:10: 1-10

 

 

This is a great homily from our old friend Fr. Terrance Chartier. 

 

 

He is so thorough on all the facets of this Gospel passage.  I can only highlight a couple of his points.

Fr. Terrance:

In John 10:2, it says that the good shepherd enters the sheepfold through the door or through the gate, not through some other sneaky means. Now, what does this mean? Well, it means that Jesus does things in the right way. The sheepfold is an image for his church.  So, Jesus acts through his church. He enters the sheepfold through the door of the church. He's united with his children through the sacraments. unites himself to us through the sacraments.  The catechism at number 1213 calls baptism the gateway to life in the spirit and the door which gives access to the other sacraments.  So Jesus uses the means which he himself has established namely the sacraments and the hierarchy of the church in order to reach his children his sheep.  Shepherds in the church who have the heart of the good shepherd, therefore act in accord and in conformity to the church. They don't get at the sheep by going around the church or ignoring the church or disobeying the church. Those who do so to quote our Lord's words are thieves and robbers.

 

Secondly, the good shepherd calls his own sheep by name. John 10:3. When we were baptized, we were actually given a Christian name. We were given a baptismal name. And the catechism at number 2156 notes that through your name, Jesus, the good shepherd knows you personally. So through baptism, we belong to him. But after baptism, we truly belong to him or we continue to belong to him if we listen to his voice.  My sheep hear my voice. He says in (John 10:27) meaning that we belong to Christ, if we live our life in conformity to his teaching and his commandments, if we strive to be faithful to the commandments, then Jesus really does know us on an intimate personal level.  What will he say on judgment day to those who are condemned? He will say to them, quote, "I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers." (Matthew7:23).  So when Jesus speaks to you now, when he speaks in your conscience and through the godly people in your life, you need to hear his voice. You need to listen to him.

There are more insights worth listening to including an exegesis of the 23rd psalm.

 

For the pastoral homily I will present to you someone who I have not embedded on these Sunday homilies before, a Dominican from The Province of St. Albert the Great—that’s the province from the Midwest of the United States—Fr. Charlie Brouchard O.P. 

 

There is no transcript to copy from, but I particularly liked his story about when he was in the novitiate and had to round up sheep in a camp experience with the other novitiates.  “Those sheep neither recognized our voices nor followed us.  In fact they were quite determined to not get on that truck and protested in every possible way they could, including leaving little presents all over the ground and on us!”

“We can say we believe there are many sheep gates to choose among but Jesus is suggesting to us in effect there is only one that will lead us to happiness and salvation.”

“One of the issues this [recent Catholic conversions] raises for us is whether we have spoken or behaved in a way that might have attracted even one single person to the faith.  Has my witness in what I say or what I do made anyone say, “Oh maybe the Catholic Church...is the sheepgate that Jesus is talking about.”

The Church through our witness is the voice of Jesus calling out to the sheep.

 

 

Sunday Meditation: "Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture."

 

Let’s return to John Michael Talbot with his “The Lord is My Shepherd.”

 

The Lyrics:

The Lord is my shepherd;

I shall not want

Beside restful waters

I am there

In the pasture of plenty

My soul lies down

 

So come all you thirsty

Your soul shall be refreshed

And come all you inflicted

And be healed

For though we walk

In the darkness now

No evil shall be feared

If the light of His banner

Be at our side

 

The Lord is my shepherd;

I shall not want

Beside restful waters

I am there

In the pasture of plenty

My soul lies down

 

And come

All you hungry

At the table by His bread

And come now

And be anointed

Overflow

With His goodness

And His kindness

For the rest of your years

As you dwell within the hosue

Of our Lord

 

The Lord is my shepherd;

I shall not want

Beside restful waters

I am there

In the pasture of plenty

My soul lies down

 

Sunday Meditation: On the Road to Emmaus

For the Third Sunday of Easter in Year A we have the notable “Road to Emmaus” passage.  It is the Sunday of the Resurrection, and two disciples, dejected and unbelieving that Christ has risen, are walking from Jerusalem to a town seven miles away called Emmaus.  Suddenly a man joins them on the route, and in dialogue the man explains to them how the scriptures had foreshadowed a messiah who would undergo suffering and death and resurrection.  Who are these two disciples?  The passage names one as Cleopas but leaves the other unnamed. Among the theories of the identity of the unnamed disciple, I favor the other being Mary the wife of Cleopas.  Mary the wife of Cleopas is mentioned being at the crucifixion in three Gospels: Jn 19:25, Mt 27:56, and Mk 15:40.  It would make perfect sense that Cleopas would be traveling home with his wife.  Fr. Geoffrey Plant will developed this further in his homily below.

One important aspect of this passage is that it depicts both the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist together.  I don’t think there is anywhere else in the New Testament where the two are so brought together.

 

Today’s Gospel:

 

 

That very day, the first day of the week,

two of Jesus' disciples were going

to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus,

and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.

And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,

Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,

but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.

He asked them,

"What are you discussing as you walk along?"

They stopped, looking downcast.

One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply,

"Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem

who does not know of the things

that have taken place there in these days?"

And he replied to them, "What sort of things?"

They said to him,

"The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene,

who was a prophet mighty in deed and word

before God and all the people,

how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over

to a sentence of death and crucified him.

But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel;

and besides all this,

it is now the third day since this took place.

Some women from our group, however, have astounded us:

they were at the tomb early in the morning

and did not find his body;

they came back and reported

that they had indeed seen a vision of angels

who announced that he was alive.

Then some of those with us went to the tomb

and found things just as the women had described,

but him they did not see."

And he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are!

How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!

Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things

and enter into his glory?"

Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,

he interpreted to them what referred to him

in all the Scriptures.

As they approached the village to which they were going,

he gave the impression that he was going on farther.

But they urged him, "Stay with us,

for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over."

So he went in to stay with them.

And it happened that, while he was with them at table,

he took bread, said the blessing,

broke it, and gave it to them.

With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,

but he vanished from their sight.

Then they said to each other,

"Were not our hearts burning within us

while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?"

So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem

where they found gathered together

the eleven and those with them who were saying,

"The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!"

Then the two recounted

what had taken place on the way

and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread.

~Lk:24:13-35

 

 

Fr. Geoffrey Plant provides a thorough exegesis of this passage, including proposing that the unnamed disciple is Mary of Clopas.

 

Fr. Geoffrey:

Let us briefly consider two important themes that have emerged here. Firstly, the risen Lord is neither a spirit nor a ghost; he has a physical body that can be touched. And secondly, the risen Lord emphasizes that his death and resurrection are the fulfilment of Scripture. The Gospels of Luke and John stress the physical reality of the risen Jesus in strikingly similar ways, especially through the themes of touch and eating, as we have heard in today’s Gospel. Jesus invites the disciples to touch him, and he then asks for something to eat. And yet the risen body of Jesus is not simply restored to ordinary earthly life. Jesus is not merely resuscitated, like Lazarus was. The body of Jesus is transformed, belonging to the new creation. He is no longer subject to the ordinary limitations of space and time.

 

This second theme — the fulfilment of Scripture — runs through Luke’s whole work. The overall design of Luke’s two-volume narrative — the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles — is to show that the story of Jesus constitutes the fulfilment of the story of Israel. God has bound himself to Israel and can therefore be trusted to rescue his people and bring his saving purposes to completion. In Luke’s Gospel, the idea that Scripture is being “fulfilled” means that what God promised long ago is now actually happening — and to express this idea Luke often uses the Greek verb πληρόω (plēroō), which means “to fulfil, to fill up, or to bring to completion.”… God’s plan has been unfolding across centuries, and in Jesus the promises of Scripture reach their goal. But Luke is not only telling us what  God has done; he is also shaping his Gospel so that we learn how to see what God is doing.

 

And so, when you see the parallels of between the eating of the bread in this passage with that of eating the fruit in the Garden of Eden (“their eyes were opened”), does it not make sense that the unnamed disciple was a woman, the wife of the man?

For the pastoral homily, let’s once again turn to Fr. Greg Friedman OFM who provides a homily for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

 

Fr. Greg:

The 24th chapter of Luke's gospel might have been written by a busy pastor and his pastoral team. There the biblical author presents the very first Easter day as one of non-stop action. It begins with the women then Peter coming to the tomb.  Next, today's gospel story of the road to Emmas. The two disciples walk 7 miles from Jerusalem, share a meal with the risen Jesus, then head back to Jerusalem. There all the disciples are visited by the Lord. But the day doesn't end. Jesus leads them out to Bethany where he blesses them and is carried up to heaven. If you read it straight through, the action seems to take place all on one day. Now, that's what I call a busy Easter. While we're focused today on that well-known story on the road to Emmas, allow me to reflect a bit on Luke's long Easter day. Why would the evangelist choose to group all the stories about the risen Jesus together into what appears to be 24 hours?  Well, I suspect Luke isn't concerned about real time here. Rather, his non-stop Easter Day takes place in salvation time, sometimes called by the Greek word Kairos.  Thanks to the resurrection of Jesus, his disciples are experiencing through faith and teaching what life as church is all about…Luke does have a point by inviting us to live our lives in a timeless Easter day.

 

What a wonderful insight.

 

 

Sunday Meditation: "Were not our hearts burning within us

while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?"

 

This was played at my parish today.  “Two Were Bound for Emmaus.”

 

Two were bound for Emmaus, disheartened and lost

All their hope for the future had been nailed to a cross

Love unknown then walked beside them, come back from the dead

And they knew he was risen in the breaking of bread

 

On the Sea of Tiberius, when the night was nearly gone

And their toil seemed so useless, not one fish had they caught

From the shore, the stranger called to them

"Cast your net, friends, once more"

And they filled it to bursting, but the net was not torn

 

Then they knew it was Jesus and they hastened in to shore

Bread and fish for their breakfast from the hands of their Lord

"O Peter, if you love me you must care for my sheep

If you follow your Shepherd, then a shepherd you'll be"

 

When the road makes us weary, when our labor seems but loss

When the fire of faith weakens and too high seems the cost

Let the Church turn to its risen Lord who for us bore the cross

And we'll find our hearts burning at the sound of his voice

 

Two were bound for Emmaus, disheartened and lost

All their hope for the future had been nailed to a cross

Love unknown then walked beside them, come back from the dead

And they knew he was risen in the breaking of bread