The Third Sunday of Easter

I’ve always held to the adage that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Truth be told, I think they are all important. One of my favorite things to do on my September vacation is to go out for breakfast.

There are two great breakfast haunts in Provincetown where I will feast on eggs over easy with crisp bacon and, on occasion, a side of light as a feather pancakes all accompanied by great decaf. Am I getting you hungry?. Good food, good service good company—what a way to start the day and enjoy God’s bounty.

What we have in the Gospel today is a breakfast story. It’s a very human story and a story of restoration. The disciples have gone back to their daily routine as fishermen because they need to survive in spite of everything that has happened to turn their lives upside down. Again, when he they have difficulty recognizing the risen Christ—he appears to be a stranger— but their uncertainty is overturned once he begins to feed them. I suspect this was the second Eucharistic meal they enjoyed with Jesus—now fully resurrected.

It’s not unlike our Sunday liturgy where Jesus feeds us in the word proclaimed and preached in our midst and gives us holy bread and wine as symbols of God’s presence with us, God’s mercy, forgiveness and love.

A significant resurrection encounter s recorded in this Sunday’s gospel text: The restoration of Peter. After recognizing Jesus on the beach and eating breakfast together, Jesus proceeds to ask Peter three times, “Do you love me?”

Peter’s guilt-stricken perplexity forces from him three confirmations of love that rise in their intensity. Through this therapeutic encounter with Jesus, Peter is fully restored.

I think we all seek restoration of one kind or other at times in our lives. Perhaps, as we age it is physical restoration of our bodily health. May is designated as Mental Health Awareness Month and I’d like to share a story about restoration that I witnessed is my practice.

We’ll call him “Jay.” He came to me in in the summer of 2021, by Zoom, of course, in the midst of COVID. He was barely 19, a stunningly handsome six foot teenager and had been hospitalized twice with psychotic behavioral symptoms after significant abuse of marijuana and other hallucinogens. His parents were recently separated. He had moved five times and been in as many schools. His mom did her best to support them with no help from his alcoholic father and for several months they had to live with his aunt and uncle.

Jay’s behavior spiraled as he continued to use weed, spending his days skateboarding and drinking with buddies. Finally, mom and he moved to a nice condo in Westchester and his behavior was spinning out of control, likely due to untreated bipolar disorder. Jay was referred to a psychiatrist and began to take medication, and Jay decided to begin college. Then, as is too common with those living with Bipolar, he stopped taking meds and his symptoms returned in spades.

He became aggressive towards his mother and was a disruption to professors and students; he was asked to leave college. So, against medical advice, he enlisted in the army, withholding on his application any information about mental health issues or prior hospitalizations. He lasted ten days whereupon he was admitted to the military psychiatric unit for a three-week intensive inpatient therapy and administered a 30 day injectable form of Abilify that reversed his behavior. He realized he had reached rock bottom. He had to accept his need for help.

When he returned home, he had stabilized enough to look for work and, in the fall, enrolled in a local university. He religiously met with his prescriber for his monthly meds and this past January he graduated with honors and his undergraduate degree. He has a good full time job and has begun to go to church. By the grace of God, he has been restored. We still meet and I am so proud of this now 23-year-old young man.

But many people who suffer from mental and behavioral health issues don’t have access to services, can’t afford them, or are unwilling to address the problem.  Then we hear the horrible news of a Branford father who beat his 12-year-old son to death. So, on this first Sunday in Mental Health Awareness month, may we pray for those who suffer from mental illness and for their restoration to wholeness.

They did not ask for this lot in life. It is very painful for them and those they love.

I think what Jesus was really doing that morning on the beach was literally trying to “break his friends fast” from joy and hope and expectation. He was drawing them out of their depression, grief and despair. He showed them in the simple and ordinary sharing of a meal together that life would go on and that he would still be with them.  Jesus was doing some very good therapy that morning. He was not just restoring Peter. He was restoring all of them to wholeness.

He will do the same for us if we ask.