Thoughts from Today's Readings and More Fish

Part of the first reading reminds us of the truth of the Gospel.

Acts 4:11-12Douay-Rheims 

11 This is the stone which was rejected by you the builders, which is become the head of the corner.

12 Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved.

Today, we see clearly that only in the Name of Jesus are we saved. Most Catholics have forgotten this fact. Salvation is through Christ, and His Church.

May we continue to evangelize until we can no longer do so.

I wrote about the Gospel yesterday on Jesus and the Fish. But, I want to highlight one verse today.

John, with his eye for detail, knows exactly how many fish were caught that day. 153. I looked into what kind of fish these would have been in that miraculous catch. 153 sardines would not be a big deal, although sardines are found in the Sea of Tiberias. The only two likely fish would have been the barbel, which could grow up to 21 pounds per fish, and the musht, or St. Peter's fish, or what we all know as Tilapia. Tilapia grow up to 9 and 1/2 pounds. If the 153 fish were mostly barbel, the net would have been stretched indeed. Next time you have Tilapia, think of Jesus and the apostles at the Sea of Galilee.

John 21:11-14Douay-Rheims 

11 Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land, full of great fishes, one hundred and fifty-three. And although there were so many, the net was not broken.

If one goes to the catecombs in Rome, as I did a long time ago, one sees fish art--a use of the Christian symbol for Christ, based on the angram for Jesus.

From wiki:

ΙΧΘΥΣ (Ichthus) is an acronym/acrostic^[5] for "Ίησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ", (Iēsous Christos, Theou Yios, Sōtēr), which translates into English as "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour".

• Iota (i) is the first letter of Iēsous (Ἰησοῦς), Greek for "Jesus".
• Chi (ch) is the first letter of Christos (Χριστός), Greek for "anointed".
• Theta (th) is the first letter of Theou (Θεου), Greek for "God's", the genitive case of Θεóς, Theos, Greek for "God".
• Upsilon (y) is the first letter of (h)uios^[6] (Υἱός), Greek for "Son".
• Sigma (s) is the first letter of sōtēr (Σωτήρ), Greek for "Savior".

And, of course, this should remind us of the Jesus Prayer, the ancient Eastern prayer, many of us say daily which I learned from friends in the 1970s and The Philokalia in the early 1980s, Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

See this for the other posting on fish and Jesus...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2015/04/jesus-and-fish.html