Lesson from Fr. Paulus | Jesus Fills Our Emptiness

In the gospel on the third Sunday of Easter we read the boat was empty; something was missing. They set out; but they set out without Jesus. Isn't that sometimes the case with all of us? We want to trust in ourselves, we don´t want to have to rely on God.

And at the same time, deep down we really do want to rely on God, we want to know that someone is in charge, that all these wayward paths converge upon the goal. But we get confused and turn to what we're comfortable with.

The apostles do exactly that. They go fishing, but they are fishing without the Lord. And so, they don't catch anything. Sometimes God allows our best-laid plans to come crashing down around us. He doesn't do this to torment us, but to teach us to trust in him.

Their embarrassment and frustration must have been overwhelming. Fishermen tend to be proud of their skill set, and when they're skunked it's humiliating. And then, to make matters worse, Jesus shows up on the shore and asks if they've caught anything.

This is like rubbing salt in an open wound. And you can imagine the way they growled in response "no, we haven't caught anything." And they must have been thinking to themselves, "and mind your own business." But the apostles needed to recognize their own weakness. They needed to vocalize their own inability to do anything without Jesus. And when they do that, he acts.

He fills the boat with 153 types of fish. According to St Jerome, there are 153 types of fish in the ocean. So that number represents above all the fullness of the Church. But it also represents the fullness of our own lives when we give them over to Christ. He fills our emptiness with his friendship. He gives us meaning and purpose.

He fills our lives with wonder; he fills our lives with love.

Back from the Brink with Mother Teresa

Brother Andrew from the Missionary Brothers of Charity tells the following story.

One day Mother Teresa received a letter written by a man on the day of his intended suicide. He wrote that, on the preceding afternoon, he had worked out all the details for what seemed to him a perfectly "rational" suicide.

And then, quite by accident, he came across Malcolm Muggeridge's biography of Mother Teresa. Bored and with nothing else to do, he started to read it. As he read, he found that book, or rather that life, giving him a new interest in life, and, as he finished it, he moved back from the brink of suicide to begin life anew.

The example of Mother Teresa, until then unknown to him, had given him hope. This man had discovered that his boat was empty. But by the example of a living saint, he realized that it could be full.

Give, and you will receive

When we feel empty, the tendency is to close in on ourselves. But that's a huge mistake. Just like the apostles, we're tempted to return to our comfort zone. Theirs was fishing. What's mine? Food or shopping or ESPN or wine… We're familiar with them all. They're good things in small doses. But if we turn to them to fill us, they leave us empty.

One of the best ways to break out of those doldrums is to give ourselves to others. Break out of that protective shell and give.

How? Here are a few suggestions. Let's pick one of these, or something else that comes to mind during the Mass, and work on it this week.

• Visit someone who's alone. Or at least call.
• Invite a friend to come to Mass sometime.
• Say a prayer for someone who's suffering.
• Resolve to do three kind acts for your spouse each day (or for your siblings).

We're in the middle of the Easter season. Jesus wants to fill our boat with the joy of his presence. As we serve him in others, we begin to experience that joy more and more.

When we receive Christ today, really present in the Eucharist, we ask him to help us to give ourselves to others. And we trust that through Him, with Him, and in Him, what seems empty can become truly full.