When life gets hard, when you’re contending with something that makes you scared or fearful or confused, how do you deal with it? Sooner or later, every one of us will be confronted with some monumental challenge in life.
A well-known British psychologist, Dr. J.A. Hadfield, shared that he discovered “when people find life being too much for them, one will swear, another will get sick, and yet another will turn to alcohol or other drugs.” So, how do we deal with it? It’s a simple question with an infinite number of answers. Do you give up? Do you lash out in anger and resentment? Do you look for someone to blame? Do you try your best to run away from it all?
There is a wonderful and universal life lesson revealed in the Gospel for the Third Sunday of Easter. It is a lesson that can be applied not only to our spiritual life but equally as well to any challenging circumstance that arises in our everyday lives. The uncompromising answer to the question “how do we deal with hardship?” is: “Move forward in faith with God.” When none of our good efforts seem to be paying dividends – when we’ve worked tirelessly and our nets are still empty – Jesus teaches us to listen and keep our eyes on Him and then move forward in faith, not backward.
Two common pitfalls can derail God’s call to us to move forward into His new opportunities, this Gospel passage teaches us. The first trap: Don’t get caught up in present-day disappointments. The second trap: Don’t get caught up in past failures.
Our Gospel passage begins with Peter announcing that he’s decided to go fishing. We don’t know the total number of people in the entire group, but we do know at least six others joined him. All seven apostles had all been on an emotional roller coaster over the previous days and by this point, Peter is fed up. He’s worn down by all the disappointments connected to the horrific events that led to the crucifixion of Jesus. He’s still confused by the possible reality of a resurrected Jesus. He’s exhausted by his experiences, and he craves stability. So he decides to just return to what he had been doing three years earlier, before ever meeting Jesus. He looks backward instead of forward in faith. Fishing was the one thing Peter knew. Three years earlier, fishing had been his livelihood, it had been his security, it was where he felt comfortable and certain. The only problem with choosing that old path was that he was ignoring the fact that Jesus Himself called him out of that life to become “the rock,” a fisher of men.
When we are challenged to the max, God will always give us a path and vision to make the appropriate changes in our life. We have to have courage and faith to pursue it – always looking forward in faith, never backward.
The first time Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him, he says, “Peter, son of John, do you love me more than these?” I don’t believe that the “these” were the other disciples. Jesus wasn’t asking if Peter loved Him more than the other apostles gathered there. I’m confident that Jesus pointed to the boat, the nets and the profitable catch of fish. Then Jesus looked Peter squarely in the eye and asked Peter if he loved Him more than these things. Did he love Him more than the feeling of security he had left behind?
Jesus challenged Peter to understand that faith and openness to new opportunities often requires us to be willing to let go of our past securities. We have to let go of our fears and open ourselves to what the future will bring.
Remember the second trap – not getting caught up in past failures? Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him. When that question was repeated three times, you know that in his head and in his heart, Peter revisited the blackness of Good Friday night, just a few nights earlier when he emphatically denied three times that he even knew Jesus. When he heard the cock crow, he realized what he had done and went out of the courtyard and wept bitterly. But here, in this Gospel story, Jesus challenges Peter to understand the fullness of God’s forgiveness and also God’s encouragement to move beyond his past failures and into the fullness of new opportunities.
One of my favorite pieces of music is Handel’s “Messiah.” When we listen to this ecstatic music, it’s easy to assume that it was written by a man at the height of his success. That’s not the case. In fact, it was written after he had suffered a stroke. It was written while Handel lived in poverty and in miserable surroundings. He had suffered through a particularly deep night of gloom and despair over his failure as a musician. The very next morning, he dismissed his failures and unleashed his creative genius to create a musical score that continues to thrill and inspire us today.
If we constantly focus on our failures, we will most assuredly miss many of the opportunities God is placing before us. When it comes to our failures, we are all called to move forward in faith – with God and His forgiveness and His unlimited opportunities at our side.
As we continue to celebrate the truth and the beauty of this Easter season, let us be mindful of the message of this Gospel story. When God interrupts our lives, as Jesus did to His disciples on that early morning by the Sea of Galilee, let that interruption become an opportunity for us to revisit our call as Christian disciples. When present disappointments tempt us to retreat to past comfort and security, let us renew our desire to step out in faith, to grow and be challenged by God’s vision for us. And when our past failures overwhelm us and tend to focus our minds on the past, let our persistent faith and God’s complete forgiveness be our companions as we open ourselves to the opportunities that God is placing before us – this very moment.
Deacon Michael Zboyovski of St. Eugene Church in Asheville delivered this homily at Masses May 4-5.