The initial hours after things like family trips, celebrations and special occasions have always been a struggle for me. I seem to get caught in melancholy’s trap: life feels shockingly dull, ordinary, even scary. I told my mom once that Heaven must be like a giant wedding that never ends, filled with happy reunions, dancing, joy — and no one has to leave.
Those feelings are stirred in me with today’s gospel. We see Peter with the disciples, in the days following the most incredulous years of their lives. How in the world did they go back to everyday life! When Peter says “I am going fishing,” I can feel the heaviness in his heart and imagine his urgency to fight the melancholy by doing something familiar, hoping that it would help.
Then Jesus — the Risen Jesus — appears, and he finds Peter and the disciples precisely where they are, just like he did in the beginning: fishing. Their reaction is curious: they are quiet and obedient, but they don’t realize at first that it’s him.
How do you meet the Risen Christ? Do you recognize him in the ordinary times? Do you struggle coming down from life’s “mountaintop” moments? Do you give him your heavy heart?
—Kristin Dillon is a lay minister who participates in Charis Ministries programs. She lives in Chicago with her husband and six-month-old son.