When God Makes Breakfast - May 22nd 2026

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me.

[00:00:07]I adore you with profound reverence. I ask you for pardon of my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful.

[00:00:17]My mother immaculate, St. Joseph, my father and Lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

[00:00:27]Today's gospel from St. John begins with the words, "When they had finished breakfast."

[00:00:37]It might seem very anodyne, circumstantial, banal.

[00:00:44]But, no.

[00:00:45]Because this breakfast on the shores of the lake of Gennesaret was made by Jesus.

[00:00:54]This is God, the risen Lord, who makes breakfast for his apostles, who've been out all night working hard and catching nothing.

[00:01:05]We can imagine how exhausted, how disheartened they were, um, how in need of some food and some comfort.

[00:01:15]We're told that when they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there with fish lying out lying on it and bread.

[00:01:26]Well, Jesus makes breakfast for his people.

[00:01:30]God makes breakfast for his apostles.

[00:01:34]Jesus, I do want I want to focus on this.

[00:01:38]You made the toast, literally. There was bread on the fire.

[00:01:41]And there's fish.

[00:01:43]Because it's always a discovery and a rediscovery for me, Lord, that you are true man as well as true God.

[00:01:52]And you come to us even now in the most ordinary everyday things.

[00:01:58]Also, in breakfast.

[00:02:01]So, when we make breakfast maybe for our loved ones or give a hand in making the breakfast or clearing up after the breakfast, Jesus all is also in that.

[00:02:11]Our Lord is also involved in that.

[00:02:14]He is present in that.

[00:02:18]The incarnation, God who becomes man, changes everything.

[00:02:23]And it means that the most ordinary everyday things have been touched by God.

[00:02:30]God has become Emmanuel, God with us.

[00:02:35]Jesus Christ is true God from true God.

[00:02:38]And Lord, you are also true man.

[00:02:42]And that's why as we go about our day-to-day, whether it's morning time or evening time when we're doing our prayer with this meditation, we realize Lord that we meet you and we touch you in the ordinary. And like with the apostles, you come to meet us in the ordinary.

[00:03:01]The ordinary can indeed be sublime.

[00:03:05]As is the case actually in this intimate, profound conversation which you Lord have with Simon Peter after breakfast.

[00:03:17]This conversation which forms the basis of today's gospel or the substance of today's gospel and is nothing other than the calling of Peter to be Pope, to follow Christ as Pope, to be his vicar on Earth.

[00:03:31]Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?"

[00:03:37]He said to him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you."

[00:03:42]He said to him, "Feed my lambs."

[00:03:45]A second time he said to him, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?"

[00:03:50]He said to him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you."

[00:03:54]He said to him, "Tend my sheep."

[00:03:58]He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?"

[00:04:03]Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?"

[00:04:08]And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything.

[00:04:11]You know that I love you."

[00:04:14]Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep."

[00:04:18]Such a beautiful conversation, such a dialogue.

[00:04:23]We do well to meditate on it quietly.

[00:04:26]Jesus who three time three times asks Simon, son of John, this particular person calling him by his name, "Do you love me?"

[00:04:38]And Peter who each time says, "Yes." And each time gets a commission, gets a call, gets a mission, gets a vocation.

[00:04:45]"Feed my lambs.

[00:04:47]Tend my sheep.

[00:04:49]Feed my sheep."

[00:04:52]Of course, the third time round Saint Peter is disoriented. He's disconcerted. Like, "Why, Jesus, do you ask him three times?"

[00:05:02]But I'm sure afterwards he reflected on it.

[00:05:05]And he saw that this was this way, your way, of healing him from his triple denial.

[00:05:14]Peter has to freely choose choose you three times in order to make up for the three times when he freely denied you during the passion.

[00:05:26]How loving Christ is.

[00:05:28]How loving you are, Jesus.

[00:05:30]You respect our freedom.

[00:05:32]You never ride rough roughshod over our individuality, over our dignity.

[00:05:40]We have to freely choose you.

[00:05:43]Love is always free.

[00:05:46]And we see that time and again in the relationship with Jesus.

[00:05:50]This is what happens.

[00:05:52]And so, here we are.

[00:05:55]Picture the scene.

[00:05:56]Be there as it were entered into this gospel scene. Here we are on the shore after this fruitless night of fishing.

[00:06:06]Then there has been the miraculous catch of fish at the word of Jesus.

[00:06:10]And now there's breakfast. We might say, "Well, it's just breakfast."

[00:06:15]But it's in the context of this breakfast that the Lord calls Peter.

[00:06:23]Maybe you're thinking about your own vocation in life.

[00:06:28]And it's always good to discern our vocation, especially when we're younger, to be completely open to the Lord, to hand him as it were a blank check, let him fill out what the plan is, to trust in our Lord.

[00:06:41]And it is true that sometimes the Lord can call people through extraordinary experiences, and miracles, amazing events.

[00:06:54]But more often the mystery of a person's vocation unfolds in ordinary things, uh over breakfast, as it were.

[00:07:03]It's got to do with our upbringing, uh the friends we have, the environment we're in, the influences we have on us. All of these things um are part of our vocational discernment.

[00:07:18]Our vocation is not something up in the sky that has nothing to do with who we are.

[00:07:25]Grace always builds on nature. It takes into account our strengths and our weaknesses. Just like here.

[00:07:33]Uh our Lord Jesus takes into account the weakness of Peter before conferring on him the jurisdiction over the whole church, uh all the sheep and all the lambs.

[00:07:45]Before giving him that task, Jesus gently but firmly reminds Peter of his weakness.

[00:07:52]That he's capable of denying him.

[00:07:55]Just as, thank God, he's capable also of choosing him.

[00:08:00]Vocation therefore can happen also within the process of our acknowledging our weaknesses.

[00:08:06]God can call us in all kinds of circumstances.

[00:08:09]I remember hearing the story of a young man who had no faith.

[00:08:14]And he had a friend who had great faith and was trying to, I suppose, convince him of the existence of God.

[00:08:20]And gave him books to read and spoke to him and encouraged him and did all kinds of things, but this young man, no. He just didn't see the point. He didn't believe in God.

[00:08:32]But then one day he phoned up his his believing friend, his Christian friend, and said, "I believe in God.

[00:08:38]I know that God exists."

[00:08:41]And his Christian friend was gratified thinking, "Well, finally he's seen the light. He's He's read all the stuff I've given him. He's been convinced by my marvelous reasonings."

[00:08:50]But in fact that wasn't the case. At least not directly.

[00:08:54]Because this new convert, as it were, said, "Well, do you know what? I was getting on the tube, on the metro, this morning and I got distracted and I just noticed how every single person's ears are slightly different.

[00:09:07]Everyone has their own kind of earlobe, their own kind of ear.

[00:09:11]And I just thought that's amazing.

[00:09:13]There must be a God who can do all that.

[00:09:16]Who produces such variety."

[00:09:19]Now, listening to that we might think that's really banal, isn't it? Like how how could somebody get their Christian calling by looking at people's ears on the underground?

[00:09:28]But of course, God has become man.

[00:09:32]He is present in the most material things, be it fish or toast or breakfast or people's ears.

[00:09:39]Let us be attentive to hear his loving voice.

[00:09:45]I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations you have communicated to me in this time of prayer.

[00:09:53]I ask you for help to put them into effect.

[00:09:56]My mother Immaculate, St. Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.