IN the twenty-first chapter of St. John's Gospel is an account of one of the most beautiful incidents in the earthly experience of our Master—his last breakfast with his disciples in the early morning on the shore of the Galilean Sea. The disciples had evidently failed to realize the import of the crucifixion and the resurrection. Both Mark and Luke record that they continued to question the report that Jesus had indeed risen from the grave. With thoughts turned inward rather than outward and upward, the disciples became confused and discouraged, and John tells us that, at Peter's suggestion, they returned to their fishing. We read that they fished all night and caught nothing. After glimpsing the saving Principle manifested by the Christ, they could not profit by returning to material methods of working out their problems.
The record informs us that Jesus was standing on the shore, yet the disciples did not recognize him. The mystification of thought which results from a material sense of things hides the true view from us. The disciples' thoughts at this time were heavy and sorrowful. No wonder that they did not recognize the exalted, spiritual sense of being of which Jesus was more fully conscious after the resurrection! But the Master roused them from their dullness and unbelief, and gently led them from the material sense of things to the spiritual, turning their thoughts from the contemplation of material methods to the realization of Truth's ever-present, abundant supply.
"Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find." It was the beloved John who first recognized the spiritual authority in this counsel. He it was who identified the evidence of instantaneous supply with the Christ. When the disciples reached the shore, they found breakfast awaiting them. Jesus had not needed their draught of fish—their evidence of supply—in order to feed them. This experience served to open their thoughts to the scientific fact that their supply was wherever they were, awaiting only their recognition of its ever-presence, because of God's ever-presence. Today, as then, the Christ-message to each one is, "Come and dine." Come, with uplifted thoughts, into the realization and understanding of ever-present, abundant supply. Come, and partake of that spiritual repast, that refreshment of spiritual ideas, which will feed and clothe you throughout all eternity.
