Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Health Vailankanni

What does the sea indicate but the present age, which is disturbed by the uproar of circumstances and the commotion of this perishable life? What does the solidity of the shore signify but the uninterrupted continuance of eternal peace? Therefore since the disciples were still held in the waves of this mortal life, they were laboring on the sea. But since our Redeemer had already passed beyond his perishable body, after his resurrection he stood on the shore as if he were speaking to his disciples by his actions of the mystery of his resurrection: “I am not appearing to you on the sea, because I am not with you in the waves of confusion” (Mt 14:25) It is for this reason that he said in another place to these same disciples after his resurrection: “These are the words I spoke to you when I was still with you” (Lk 24:44). It was not that he wasn't with them when he appeared to them as a bodily presence; but... he in his immortal body was apart from their mortal bodies. He was saying that he was no longer with them even as he stood in their midst. In the passage we read today he also disclosed, by the place in which he was standing when he showed himself on shore while they were still at sea, what he professed when he was with them.

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"When it was already dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore"

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