Anticipation

Thank you, William.
Your Easter Greetings opened up the way of Holy Week and the encounters of Resurrection.
Your reflection casts a spotlight again on this Friday of the Octave of Easter.

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: William . . .
Sent: Sat, 27 March, 2010 19:41:55
Subject: Of anticipation

I am enclosing a ‘virtual’ version of my Easter card as I write to say that my hope to be now asking to come for a retreat just after Easter is to be on hold until a little later.

The original of my Easter card is on its way to you with its theme of "anticipation" that has carried me throughout Lent, a time that bears an intensity that heightens everything. I came upon a painting (below) and I have been imagining how Peter must have felt after he realized what he had said on that fateful night when he heard the cock crow, since which time he would have lived with but one thought in his mind… little surprise that he leapt into the water to be first ashore to gain a private moment with Jesus… “Lord, you know all things”. That shoreline has been the horizon of my desires these last weeks.

. . .

Yours

William

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Christ at the Sea of Galilee
Joseph Tintoretto - Italian 1518-1594

The Venetian master [Tintoretto 1518-1594] marshalled the unstable forces of nature to heighten the drama of this scene from John's Gospel; the wind that fills the sail and bends the mast also agitates the sea and sky, and the rocky waves meet the low clouds that blow onto the land. Christ's outstretched arm draws Peter like a magnet, the charge between them creating a dynamic link between the center of the picture and the left foreground.

John 21:

Jesus appeared to his disciples again afterwards, at the sea of Tiberias, and this is how he appeared to them. Simon Peter was there, and with him were Thomas, who is also called Didymus, and Nathanael, from Cana of Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two more of his disciples. Simon Peter told them, “I am going out fishing”; and they went out and embarked on the boat, and all that night they caught nothing. But when morning came, there was Jesus standing on the shore; only the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. “Have you caught anything, friends”, Jesus asked them, “to season your bread with?” And when they answered “No”, he said to them, “Cast to the right of the boat, and you will have a catch”. So they cast the net, and found before long they had no strength to haul it in, such a shoal of fish was in it. Whereupon the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord”. And Simon Peter, hearing him say that it was the Lord, girded up the fisherman's coat, which was all he wore, and sprang into the sea…

“Lord, you know all things; you can tell that I love you”. [Ronald A Knox translation]

Reflection and Meditation

It is the Lord

We are often unable to console ourselves when our emotions run cold and we lose our sense of the loving presence of the Lord. Like the disciples, we often go fishing all night to no purpose. Fulfilment in the spiritual life and in prayer is only possible if we allow ourselves "to let be" and become aware that we are not spiritually alone, that Jesus is standing on the shore waiting for us: then indeed will we hear the cry,"It is the Lord". Each time we recognize him, we will be aware that we will thrice hear His question echoing in the stillness of our hearts, "Do you love Me?", seeking our response: "Lord,You can tell that I love You".

I love the reassurance in the silence of the dawn
When alone I sit in quietude aware of Your presence
Standing on the shore, calling over the water
To discover and release the desires of my heart

There had been no consolation as I cast about all night
For lost in distraction I had stared into the darkness
Empty of all emotion, searching in the depths
For a thought that might season food for my soul

Suddenly my heart cries out "It is the Lord!”
Covering my nakedness, chilled by despair
I hasten to the shore to be there with You my Lord
As You end my night-time fast with the breaking of the bread

But fearfully I tremble recalling another dawn
For You ask a haunting question of the ground of my heart
Words thrice echoing in the stillness "Do you love Me?”
Drawing my sorrowed cry "Lord, You can tell that I love You"

John 21 Jesus appeared to his disciples...…standing upon the shore...…
“Lord, you know all things; you can tell that I love you"”
(Ronald A Knox translation)