Arulvakku

09.04.2021 — Abundance in Implicit Command

Friday within Easter Octave – 9th April 2021 — Gospel: John 21, 1-14

Abundance in Implicit Command

When the disciples dragged the net to the shore loaded with the fish, Jesus instructed them to bring some to cook, instead the narrator gives the count. One wonders why the gospel gives the exact number of the fish in the net – one hundred and fifty-three. Many interesting explanations are offered to the meaning of this number. First, the number 153 symbolizes different kinds of fish in the Sea of Galilee.  Second, it symbolizes the number of languages in the world at that time. Third, in other gospel accounts, Jesus gave his disciples the command to proclaim the gospel to all people (Mt 28,19; Mk 16,15; Lk 24,47). St. Jerome claimed that in John’s gospel, the number indicates of the races or tribes in the world toward which the gospel net would be spread out. Fourth, it recalls Ezekiel foretelling of fishermen pulling up all the fish of the Sea in his vision of the Temple stream. Freshwater flowed from the Temple’s sides into a wonderful stream (Eze 47,9-10). Nevertheless, the good catch of fish reminds us that the secret of success is to work at the Lord’s command, and to act with implicit obedience to His Word. It also brings out remarkably the fishermen’s awesomeness that the net has not been broken. It evinces further that God’s work carried out in God’s way will never lack God’s resources. God will see that the net does not break.