Third Sunday of Easter - Year C - 18th April 2010

Planning our Future

Planning is part of our everyday life. We plan the best use of our time, we plan how best to spend our income, we plan our travels and our holidays, we plan to do this and do that. Come to think of it, we devote a surprising number of hours to planning!

We are also busy fitting into plans made by others. As we prepare for an election, each party is spelling out it's polices. They are forever proposing plans for our welfare. We are somewhat wary of them but are still interested in knowing what it means for us.

In the final analysis, however, we know that our personal plans, and the plans of others, do not always turn out.

Fortunately, there is one plan that will never fail. It is God's plan. This Sunday's readings are concerned with this reality.

The first reading tells how the disciples of Jesus, after the resurrection, were taken before the Jewish high court for a second time. At their first trial they were given a formal command not to do any more preaching about Jesus. But they kept preaching, so they were arrested again.

Peter and the disciples defended themselves, saying, "We must obey God rather than any human authority. "Then they added: "The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand."

God's plan was to save humanity in and through his Jesus. Jesus fulfilled this plan despite all the plans of those who opposed him.

In the gospel reading, Jesus "showed himself again to the disciples", this time on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The disciples had spent the night fishing but had caught nothing. As dawn broke, Jesus, from the shore, told them to cast out their net to the starboard. They obeyed him and caught so many fish they could hardly haul in the net.

The disciples' fishing plans didn't turn out until Jesus lent a hand. Then their efforts were most successful. There are times when we rely on our own efforts and live as if the resurrection never happened.

Jesus is alive and watching us from a nearby shore. He is not a name from the past or a picture on the wall. The very corner-stone of our faith is that he is alive, but he can only be alive and active in our life in so far as we allow him to be. The choice is ours.