The Catholic Calendar for Friday, April 21, 2006
Friday in the Octave of Easter

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Acts 4:1-12
Psalm 118:1-2, 4, 22, 25-27
John 21:1-14

A reflection on today's Scripture. . . .

"Cast the net over the right side of the boat
and you will find something." (John 21:6)

A most distasteful and difficult lesson we need to learn is obedience. Toddlers torture parents through the "terrible 2's"; adolescents become devious or rebellious to gain their will; adults often retain a childish self-centeredness, using various ways to manipulate or dominate others. In our day this tendency prevails in every part of the world, but has become deadly where leaders and their people are oblivious to God's basic law of love and forgiveness. Our Creator constantly pours out His merciful love on us, yet many remain blind to it, rendering themselves unable to receive or give it.

Obedience to the rules imposed on "self" by genuine love may be costly to the human ego, but they offer us the only way to a peaceful and just world. In every age since Apostolic times, those who dare to speak God's truths inherent in His love, who oppose destructive societal beliefs and practices, can expect to suffer. Today we accuse them of curtailing our freedoms or trying to impose a certain religion on our nation. We do not realize that the law of love is nonsectarian; it is a universal necessity, the essence of God's Life.

Had the exhausted men who fished all night but returned with empty nets not obeyed Jesus telling them to cast their nets once more, they would have denied themselves of God's bounty and withheld food from hungry people. Christ desired His Apostles to become "fishers of men." These may repeatedly cast out the net of God's Holy Word and find it empty, but they (and we) can never abandon the effort to nourish the world with God's Life.

O most generous and self-giving God, imbue our hearts with Your love, that we may be vehicles through whom the world may come to know Your Holy Word, Christ our Lord.
Amen.

- Marie Bocko, OCDS
(mlbocko at earthlink dot net)