I graduated from college well over 40 years ago, believe it or not, and three of my closest college friends, one who lives in California, one who lives in Georgia and the other who lives in the western suburbs of Chicago, we’ve made a commitment to get together every two years to celebrate and to simply be with friends.

I always look forward to the gathering that takes place when the four of us are together, because like you with your friends, what takes place? You gather, you tell stories, you remember, you laugh, you look at how foolish you were at times, you also recount the ways in which you cared for one another and supported each other and you gather around a table several times to have a meal.

That’s what friendship is all about and to gather to together and to recount the memories is so terribly important. One of my good friends always says, “Memories is really all that we have in this life”. Jesus has that wonderful wisdom, it’s a post resurrection story. How did he first meet the disciples? Fishing, and they come to shore, and they caught nothing and he sends them out again and they come with a boat load, two boat loads of fish and they recognize that there’s someone special there.

After his resurrection or after all that they had been through as disciples, as friends of the Lord including witnessing his death, he appears to them and he reminds them about how they first met, about their friendships, all the ups and downs of their relationship and how he would bring them together, they have a meal.

Today we gather at the table of the Lord, and as disciples we do the same thing. Through the scriptures we tell the stories of the love that God has for us. We tell the wonderful stories of Jesus’ mission and mercy in our own lives and he feeds us with the Eucharist as body and blood. The good Lord is risen. Hallelujah.