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3rd Sunday of Easter Year C - 14/4/2013 - Gospel: Jn 21:1-19 or Jb 21:1-14
An Empty Sea
An empty sea means an empty hand for the fishermen but an empty hand doesn't mean that the sea is empty without fish. An empty hand means the fishermen or the apostles have worked hard for all night long and caught nothing. They know that there are fish stocks somewhere in the ocean but the apostles, with all their skills and experience of the sea, caught none leaving them with an empty hand. Hunger, tiredness and fruitless and hard labour made the job boring and spiritless.

The apostles of Jesus previously experienced the empty tomb and now they experience the empty sea. For the apostles both the tomb and the oceans are empty because they couldn't find what they were looking for. The explanation of the modern day for the empty tomb and the empty sea varies from person to person and time to time they contradict one another. The apostles give a simple answer for the empty tomb. It is empty because the body of Jesus is not in the tomb. The ocean is empty because the apostles caught no fish. The women believe the empty tomb because someone has removed the body of Jesus.  Some may say the sea is empty because the fish stocks of the sea are low. There are more answers for the empty sea such as the tide is unusual that causes the fish to avoid going out to prey for food. The fish, by nature knows the sea, there is something bad happening and they are in hiding. The explanation for the empty tomb is troublesome for many.  Some accept that the body of Jesus is not in the tomb because Christ has risen from the death; others say no to such belief because they believe not in the resurrection of the body. Both believers and non believers try to make sense to one another and yet both fail to convince one another.

There is a similarity between the empty tomb or the dark tomb and the black hole of the universe. Both the empty tomb and the black hole of the universe are the history of creation. One is the history of the creation of eternal life in heaven; the other is the history of life on earth. Both are dark and empty. Both are mysterious to the human mind to grasp. We can't see anything in the dark but we can see things that come out of the dark. Things that come out of the dark are self contradictory: such as out of darkness light is born. Out of chaos order and regulation are evolve. Out of emptiness life is being fulfilled. Out of death and silence new life begins. Where is logic of all these? The question of how it comes about is a mysterious question and the more we try to answer the more unsatisfactory results we get. Those who accept Jesus Christ creates the new creation, from the empty tomb, are at peace and satisfy. Those who refuse to believe Jesus Christ continue to search for the meaning of life and unhappy.

The apostles of Jesus caught no fish after a long night's work. Without Jesus they labour in vain and the sea is empty. With the help of Jesus their labour is fruitful and the sea is full of fish. The experience of having huge catch from the empty see makes them relate to the empty tomb. Jesus Christ has risen from death but there is something that covers their eyes. They can't see him until he allows them to see.

Scientists rely not on the black hole to find history of the universe but they rely on what comes out of the black hole scattered in the universe. The empty tomb tells us that those who want to meet the risen Jesus must find him outside the tomb, not in the empty tomb. The risen Christ conceals himself in a form of a gardener, a worker or a traveller and those who are genuinely look for him will find him.

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