Baked Fish and Eternal Life

The disciples of Jesus recounted what had taken place along the way,
and how they had come to recognize him in the breaking of bread.

While they were still speaking about this,
he stood in their midst and said to them,
"Peace be with you."
But they were startled and terrified
and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
Then he said to them, "Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have."
And as he said this,
he showed them his hands and his feet.
While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed,
he asked them, "Have you anything here to eat?"
They gave him a piece of baked fish; 
he took it and ate it in front of them.

He said to them,
"These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you,
that everything is written about me in the law of Moses
and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled."
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
And he said to them,
"Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things."

That which was necessary for us to attain eternal life has been accomplished.  The bloody, messy, horrific death of Jesus and his subsequent rising from the dead has assured us of a life eternal with God if that is what we want. I have always wondered why God chose this method to save us.  Was there not any other way to do this work?  Perhaps, there needed to be no blood spilled at all?  Maybe Jesus did not have to die?  Well, the fact is that yes, there was an infinite number of things God could have chosen to do to affect our salvation.  As a matter of fact, each method was thoroughly considered and this method was vetted as the best. God the Father and God the Son are now and have always been in constant agreement with each other.  Their love of one another is so great that God the Holy Spirit exists as testimony to their great love and agreement.  God always chooses things that will help His children see how much that He loves them.  He wants us to use our free will to love Him back.  He will not compel us to love Him, we have to choose to do so using our free will.  It goes deeper than that.  The bloody death of Jesus on the cross converts a debt that could never be paid into one that is easily paid by us.  We can pay our debt to Jesus by living our life as He has taught us.  We are to love one another as He has loved us and He loved us to death, he spared no expense to show us how much we were loved and what bother the Father and He would go to prove it to us. 

In our reading today a lot of important things are said.  But, I want to focus on one simple act that means all the world to us as human beings because it proves what was done for us.  That is the simple act of Jesus eating a piece of baked fish. Had He been just a spirit, there would have been no way for Him to eat human food. A spirit has no body an no way to do things that we do such as eat.  The fact that Jesus took a piece of fish and ate it showed that He was there in His physical flesh and bone body.  At this moment, by this small and insignificant act of chewing and swallowing He showed that death had no power over Him and us any longer. 

Our journey through the desert of forty days now brings us to an endless oasis of forgiveness and mercy.  If for some reason you did not go to confession during Lent, well this season of Joy and Mercy is made for you.  We are living in a time when the Mercy of God is raining down in a torrent and we just need to step into it and receive forgiveness for all of our sins.  There is just no reason for anyone of us to end up where we do not want to be.  Jesus died for our sins and the Divine Mercy is there for the taking.  Reach for heaven, it is closer than you think and yes, it is within your grasp! 

Please remember the Poor Souls in Purgatory. You may know some of them by name. If you want to know more about purgatory, information is available by clicking on the appropriate link to the right.