Dom Prosper Gueranger:
The Hebrew word Pasch signifies Passage, and we explained yesterday how this great day first became sacred by reason of the Lord’s Passover. But there is another meaning which attaches to the word, as we learn from the early Fathers, and the Jewish Rabbis. The Pasch is, moreover, the Passage of the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land. These three great facts really happened on one and the same night: the banquet of the Lamb, the death of the first-born of the Egyptians, and the departure from Egypt. Let us today consider how this third figure is a further development of our Easter Mystery.
The day of Israel’s setting forth from Egypt for his predestined country of the Promised Land is the most important in his whole history but, both the departure itself, and the circumstances that attended it, were types of future realities to be fulfilled in the Christian Pasch. The people of God was delivered from an idolatrous and tyrannical country: in our Pasch, they, who are now our neophytes, have courageously emancipated themselves from the slavish sway of Satan, and have solemnly renounced the pomps and works of this haughty Pharaoh.
On their road to the Promised Land, the Israelites had to pass through a sea of water. Their doing so was a necessity, both for their protection against Pharaoh’s army which was pursuing them, and for their entering into the land of milk and honey. Our neophytes, too, after renouncing the tyrant who had enslaved them, had to go through that same saving element of water, in order to escape their fierce enemies. It carried them safe into the land of their hopes, and stood as a rampart to defend them against invasion.
By the goodness of God, that water, which is an obstacle to man’s pursuing his way, was turned into an ally for Israel’s march. The laws it had from nature were suspended, and it became the saviour of God’s people. In like manner the sacred font which, as the Church told us on the Feast of the Epiphany, is made an instrument of divine grace, has become the refuge and fortress of our happy neophytes. Their passing through its waters has put them out of reach of the tyrant’s grasp.
Having reached the opposite shore, the Israelites see Pharaoh and his army, their shields and their chariots buried in the sea. When our neophytes looked at the holy font from which they had risen to the life of grace, they loved it as the tomb where their sins, enemies worse than Pharaoh and his minions, lay buried forever. Then did the Israelites march cheerfully on towards the Land that God had promised to give them. During the journey, they will have God as their Teacher and Lawgiver. They will have their thirst quenched by fountains springing up from a rock in the desert. They will be fed on Manna sent each day from heaven. Our Neophytes, too, will run on, unfettered, to the heavenly country, their Promised Land. They will go through the desert of this world, uninjured by its miseries and dangers, for the divine Lawgiver will teach them, not amid thunder and lightning, as He did when He gave His Law to the Israelites, but with persuasive words of gentlest love, spoken with that sweet manner which set on fire the hearts of the two disciples of Emmaus.
Springs of water will refresh them at every turn, yes, of that Living Water which Jesus, a few weeks back, told the Samaritan woman should be given to them that adore Him in spirit and in truth. And lastly, a heavenly Manna will be their food, strengthening and delighting them, a Manna far better than that of old, for it will give them immortality. So that our Pasch means all this: it is a Passing, through water to the Land of Promise, but with a reality and truth which the Israelites only had under the veil of types, sublime indeed and divine, but only types. Let then our Passover from the death of original sin to the life of grace, by holy Baptism, be a great feastday with us. This may not be the anniversary of our Baptism! It matters not. Let us fervently celebrate our exodus from the Egypt of the world into the Christian Church. Let us, with glad and grateful hearts, renew our Baptismal engagements which made our God so liberal in His gifts to us. Let us renounce Satan and all his works, and all his pomps.
The Apostle of the Gentiles tells us of another mystery of the waters of Baptism: it gives completion to all we have been saying, and equally forms part of our Pasch. He teaches us that we were hidden beneath this water, as was Christ in His tomb, and that we then died and were buried together with Him (Romans vi. 4). It was the death of our life of sin: that we might live to God, we had to die to sin. When we think of the holy font where we were regenerated, let us call it the tomb in which we buried the Old Man, who was to have no resurrection.
Baptism by immersion — which was the ancient mode of administering the Sacrament, and is still used in some countries — was expressive of this spiritual burial: the neophyte was made to disappear beneath the water — he was dead to his former life, as our buried Jesus was to His mortal life. But, as our Redeemer did not remain in the tomb, but rose again to a new life, so likewise, says the Apostle, they who are baptised rise again with Him when they come from the font. They bear on them the pledges of immortality and glory, and are the true and living Members of that Head, who dies now no more. Here, again, is our Pasch — our Passage from death to life.
Epistle – Acts iii. 12‒19
In those days, Peter opened his mouth and said, “You men of Israel, and you that fear God, hear: the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers has glorified His Son Jesus who you indeed delivered up and denied before the face of Pilate when he judged that He should be released. But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted to you. But the Author of life you killed, whom God has raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. And now, brethren, I know that you did it through ignorance, as did also your rulers. But those things which God before showed by the mouth of all the prophets, that this Christ should suffer, He has so fulfilled. Repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.”
Thanks be to God.
Dom Prosper Gueranger:
Today, again, we have the Prince of the Apostles proclaiming, in Jerusalem, the Resurrection of the Man-God. On this occasion, he was accompanied by Saint John, and had just worked his first miracle, of curing the lame man, near one of the gates of the Temple. The people had crowded round the two Apostles, and Saint Peter preached to them. It was the second time he had spoken in public. His first sermon brought three thousand to receive Baptism, the one of today, five thousand. Truly did the Apostle exercise on these two occasions his office of Fisher of Men, which our Lord gave him when He first called him to be His disciple. Let us admire the charity with which Saint Peter bids the Jews acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah. These are the very men who have denied Him, and yet the Apostle, by partially excusing their crime, on the score of ignorance, encourages them to hope for pardon. They clamoured for the death of Jesus in the days of His voluntary weakness and humiliation. Let them, now that He is glorified, acknowledge Him as their Messiah and King, and their sin will be forgiven. In a word, let them humble themselves, and they will be saved. Thus did God call to Himself those who were of a good will and an upright heart. Thus does He, also, in these our days. There were some in Jerusalem who corresponded to the call, but the far greater number refused to follow it. It is the same now. Let us earnestly beseech our Lord that the nets of His fishermen may be filled, and the Paschal Banquet be crowded with guests.
Gospel – John xxi. 1‒14
At that time, Jesus showed Himself again to his disciples at the sea of Tiberias. And He showed Himself after this manner. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas, who is called Didymus, and Nathanael, who was of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee and two others of His disciples. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will come with you.” And they went forth and entered into the ship. And that night they caught nothing. But when the morning came Jesus stood on the shore. Yet the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus therefore said to them, “Children, have you eaten any meat?” They answered Him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and you will find.” They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it, for the multitude of fishes. That disciple therefore whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.” Simon Peter, when he heard that it was the Lord, girt his coat about him (for he was naked) and cast himself into the sea. But the other disciples came in the ship (for they were not far from the land, but as it were two hundred cubits) dragging the net with fishes. As soon as they came to land, they saw hot coals lying and a fish laid thereon, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring here the fishes which you now have caught.” Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land, full of great fishes, one hundred and fifty-three. And although there were so many, the net was not broken. Jesus said to them, “Come and dine.” And none of them who were at meat dared ask Him, “Who are you?” knowing that it was the Lord. And Jesus came and took bread, and gave it to them, and the fish in like manner. This is now the third time that Jesus was manifested to his disciples after He had risen from the dead.
Praise be to you, O Christ.
Dom Prosper Gueranger:
Jesus had shown Himself to all His Apostles on the Sunday evening. He repeated his visit to them eight days after, as we will see further on. The Gospel for today tells us of a third apparition with which seven of the eleven were favoured. It took place on the shore of Lake Genesareth, which on account of its size, was called the Sea of Tiberias, The seven are delighted beyond measure at seeing their divine Master. He treats them with affectionate familiarity and provides them with a repast. John was the first to recognise Jesus. Nor can we be surprised: his purity gave keen perception to the eye of his soul, as it is written: “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew v. 8). Peter threw himself from the ship that he might the quicker reach his Lord. His natural impetuosity shows itself here as on so many other occasions, but in this impetuosity we see that he loved Jesus more than his fellow-disciples did. But let us attentively consider the other mysteries of our Gospel.
The seven Disciples are fishing — it is the Church working out her apostolate. Peter is the master fisherman. It belongs to him to decide when and where the nets are to be thrown. The other six Apostles unite with him in the work, and Jesus is with them all, looking upon their labour and directing it, for whatever is got by it is all for Him. The fish are the faithful, for, as we have already had occasion to remark, the Christian was often called by this name in the early ages. It was the font, it was water, that gave him his Christian life. Yesterday we were considering how the Israelites owed their safety to the waters of the Red Sea, and our Gospel for today speaks of a Passover — a Passing from Genesareth’s waters to a banquet prepared by Jesus. There is a mystery, too, in the number of the fishes that were taken, but what is it that is signified by these hundred and fifty-three, we will perhaps never know, until the day of Judgment reveals the secret. We doubt not but that they denote the number of tribes or nations of the human race, that are to be gradually led, by the apostolate of the Church, to the Gospel of Christ: but, once more — till God’s time is come, the book must remain sealed.
Having reached the shore, the Apostles surround their beloved Master, and lo, He has prepared them a repast — bread, and a fish lying on hot coals. This fish is not one of those they themselves have caught: they are to partake of it, now that they have come from the water. The early Christians thus interpret the mystery: the fish represents Christ who was made to suffer the cruel torments of the Passion, and whose love of us was the fire that consumed Him: and He became the divine Food of them that are regenerated by water. We have elsewhere remarked that in the primitive Church, the Greek word for Fish (Ikthus) was venerated as a sacred symbol, inasmuch as the letters of this word formed the initials of the titles of our Redeemer. But Jesus would unite, in the one repast, both the divine fish, which is Himself, and those other fishes, which represent all mankind, and have been drawn out of the water in Peter’s net. The Paschal Feast has the power to effect, by love, an intimate and substantial union between the food and the guests, between the Lamb of God and the other Lambs who are His brethren, between the divine fish and those others that He has associated to Himself by the closest ties of fellowship. They, like Him, have been offered in sacrifice. They follow Him in suffering and in glory.
