by Mark Escobar

Created on: April 25, 2010   Last Updated: April 28, 2010

Jn 21:1-19

 Jesus said, “Simon, son of John, do you love me? . . . . Feed my sheep!  . . . .  Tend my sheep!  . . . . Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”  Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”

 Perhaps in the world of superstitions each culture has something to tell us.  There are certain values and wisdom like in fishing that have been passed on from generation to generation.  In Judaism, for instance, there are many superstitions related to life cycle events and some of them are connected to the evil eye ‘ayin ha rah.’  

            Among fishermen we find their sense of reliance upon the changes of the moon side by side with the weather.  Many of them believe that children are always born when the tide is at the full and die when it is ebbing.  Countless tales and superstitions about fishing have been told.  Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, for instance, recounts Santiago’s struggle for 84 days without catching any fish at all.  He is so unlucky but eventually on the eighty-fifth day, he’s able to catch a big fish ‘marlin.’ One superstition says that to bring a banana or a black suitcase on a crab fishing boat is a bad sign.  One cannot catch fish.  I am not sure about the popular reason for that but as far as I know, banana peels could cause crew members to slip and fall on deck.  Then a black suitcase, as they say, is a harbinger of death or illness.

            I am saying this because in today’s gospel we find the seven disciples fishing all night and have caught nothing.  Some Jewish superstitions give rise to their belief that they probably have travel bags with them or they miss the direction of shooting stars.  But the Risen Jesus on the shore tells them to try again.  And they catch a plentiful of fish.  That’s the beginning when one of the disciples, John the Beloved, recognizes him.  And the other disciples join Jesus for breakfast in the shore.

            We could probably imagine places like Cancun in Mexico and many other Caribbean beaches that are popular

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