A Meal of Restoration

Gospel: John 21: 1-14

In today's Gospel portion we find Jesus preparing a meal of bread and fish at a charcoal fire.  He prepares this meal for a group of people who denied him and abandoned him earlier at a charcoal fire.  This meal of bread and fish - the same elements he multiplied earlier to feed a multitude of people - is now used as a meal of restoration and healing for his disciples.  

Throughout the Gospels, the dining table is the place of encounter and renewal with the the Lord.  Here it was that Zacchaeus found a way to make things right with God and neighbor.  It was at the table that tax collectors and prostitutes came to meet the Lord and change their lives.  Here it is now that the disciples, still wounded by their failures at the charcoal fire, come to find Jesus preparing a meal for them that will restore them to right relationship with the Lord.

The table of the Eucharist is our place to encounter the Lord, to be restored to right relationship with him and with one another.  The table is the place of forgiveness, healing, and nourishment.  To deny anyone a place at the table is to deny a person the opportunity of encounter with the Lord, an opportunity for restoration and healing.