This passage from John's Gospel poses a question: What is the point of our journey in Fede e Luce? What does Jesus' invitation to "Follow me" mean? And this one: "Come and have breakfast"?
The events John recounts here happen after Easter—after Jesus' death and resurrection. We tend to think of Easter as a moment of rebirth and fresh start for the disciples. But before it offers them any renewal, it first brings crisis. The word "Passover" means passage, crossing—a crisis. So we too are invited to ask ourselves: What crossing are we being called to make?
Peter says, "I'm going out to fish." He is in crisis and chooses to retreat—to slip back into the life of a fisherman, before Jesus called him to be a fisher of men. In moments of crisis, the first temptation is always to go backward: to flee a difficult choice, to settle, to just get by.
This temptation spreads. The other disciples follow Peter's lead. We influence one another toward good, yes—but also toward harm. We can infect each other instead of sustaining each other. Yet stepping backward is a losing move. We begin asking the wrong questions: Whose fault is this?
We Are Never Alone
Jesus asks the disciples, "Children, do you have any fish?" His question has two purposes. On one hand, he wants them to understand that without him, they arrive at nothing. It is as if he asks, "What did you gain by turning back? Where do you draw strength to nourish yourselves when you do not follow me?" On the other hand, we need to grasp that even in defeat, even when we walk alone, we are never truly alone—and the possibility to go forward always remains. If we follow Jesus, food will never fail us. He always has it ready for us. The story ends with an invitation to eat, but the meal is already prepared on the shore.
So we must stop and take stock—not to despair, but to look at what is in our pantry and, seeing that we have nothing, to understand that we need to follow Jesus, to trust him to move ahead. So long as we fail to grasp this, we will keep searching for new ideas or new projects, always tethered to ourselves, to our own efforts, to our own common sense.
Come and Have Breakfast
What are you asking of me in this moment, Lord? If I fail, perhaps it is because the project I was pursuing was only my own. "Casting the nets" means trusting in the project the Lord has for me.
Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" The disciple who recognizes himself as beloved recognizes the signs of the Lord's presence. In truth, Jesus loves all his disciples—but we struggle to recognize ourselves as loved by him. We too are called to recognize the Lord, alive and present among us, walking with us.
"Come and have breakfast": Jesus keeps extending new invitations to us. First he invites us to see that we have nothing. Then he invites us to eat. Everything is already waiting on the shore. The disciples bring a bit of fish, but he has prepared it all.
How are you nourishing us, Lord, in this moment of our journey?
(Edited by Valentina Gallo), 2005