the presence of Jesus: 1st week of Easter Tuesday 2013, St. Vincent Ferrer

The resurrected Jesus reveals himself once more to his disciples, this time in Lake Tiberias.  They went fishing in the night and caught nothing.  However, towards dawn, Jesus appeared to them and commanded them to cast out their nets for a catch.  Indeed it was a great catch and they were astounded.  They realized that it was Jesus.

Two realizations here.

First, the presence of Jesus in their work made their work fruitful.  With the best effort struggling all night through, to catch something, they caught nothing until dawn when Jesus came.  Jesus makes our work fruitful.  Some of the miracles which Jesus wrought were mere multiplication of what we already possess.  The five loaves and two fishes were provided from a boy.  Out of the little that he gave, Jesus fed five thousand men. 

In our gospel today Jesus asked his disciples to multiply their patience, to multiply their persistence and give it one more try.  Jesus did not put fish in their nets.  Instead he asked them to give it one more try – to lower down the nets for one last try.   When things come within the ambit of Christ’s presence, that thing, that value, that virtue, that little spark of generosity, that tiny contribution, that patience, that courage, are greatly multiplied.  The presence of Jesus in our work, in our struggle, in our use of our abilities will greatly multiply our capacity.

Second, we need to see Jesus in the work that we do, from the big things that we do to the little responsibilities in our community, in our offices and homes.  We need to see Jesus even in our most mundane task.  Most often things come into trouble in the community, in our programs when we fail to see Jesus in our work.  Most often too our task becomes sinful when we could not see Jesus in our efforts.  Take away Jesus from your business transactions and observe how things turn out in our need to profit greatly; take away Jesus from our choices and what do we get?  Take away Jesus from our recreation and look where it will lead us.  We need to recover the sight that can make us see Jesus in our work, even in our mundane and ordinary tasks.

Today we look at our patron, St. Vincent Ferrer as one who shows us the way to Jesus.  He has shown us how to entrust oneself to Jesus, to offer everything that we have for Jesus.  St. Vincent Ferrer is the preacher of the last things – of the things that will happen in the last days when we die or when the world comes to its end and Christ comes in glory. This is an important preoccupation – we have to clarify our goal, we have to be clear with our objective, with our end.  And when this is clarified then we pattern our lives now to our end.  Let us pray that St. Vincent will guide us in our endeavours always conscious of our end.