Ninth station

The Risen Christ meets his disciples by the Sea of Tiberias 

P  We adore, O Risen Christ, and we bless you.
A  Because by your resurrection you have given life to the world.

R From the Gospel according to John (Jn 21,1-9.13)
After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing," They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out and got into the boat; but that night they caught nothing. Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them. "Children, have you any fish?" They answered him, "No." He said to them. "Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, for the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his clothes, for he was stripped for work, and sprang into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.
When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread. (…) Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish.

G1 Jesus asks for food. Yet he doesn't need it; his body is glorious. He makes this request to share this human necessity, to partake at man's daily table. In a similar way Jesus asked a Samaritan woman for water at the well of Sychar. God that asks is an unprecedented God. He asks the man to get in to his world and presents his power of love. To stimulate/incite his disciples, he asked them to cast the previously empty net and now incredibly full. Then he invites them to a lavish and cheerful meal. Without him, the table would have been miserable and sad.

G2 Jesus knocks at the door of today's world. He wants to enter it. It is a tired and desperate world, full of lights and deprived of the light; full of ephemeral and  pleasurable things available to few only; while the heart remains empty like the net. For the majority there is poverty and oppression, there is dishumanization, there is a blocked future. And the stomach stays empty like the net. This way man experiences emptiness of heart. The absence of the divine; the lack of the human; it is Risen Jesus who approaches first and asks. When God loves, he also gives. If God has a preference for somebody, then he asks him. He asks to relaunch the hope and the love which become perfect through exercise.

A  Rejoice, O Virgin Mother Mary:
    Christ is risen, Alleluia.

P Risen Jesus, make us meek to recover the hope, after our failures. You, the Risen Christ, sit at the table with us. During your stay among us right after your resurrection you did not appear the victorious God full of splendour and glory but as the simple ordinary one, who celebrates the Easter on the shore of a lake, at the table out of doors. Make us witnesses of your resurrection in everyday life, with its monotonies, where on the shores of our sufferings you have always awaited us since eternity. Sit at the tables of satiated, but empty men. Sit at the tables of the poor ones, that still have hope. And the world that you love will become new, modelled on your resurrection.
A  Amen.

A  O Mary, temple  of the Holy Spirit
    guide us, the witnesses to the Risen Christ
    on the path of light.