126 TDIE AFTER PENTECOST
GOSPEL
Sequentia sa.ncti Eva.ngelii
secundum Luca.m.
Oaput V.
In illo tempore : Cum
turbre irruerent in Jesum,
ut a.udirent verbum Dei, et
ipse eta.bat secus stagnum
Geneza.reth. Et vidit duas
naves stantes secuseta.gnwn:
piscatoree autem descende­
rant, et la.vaba.nt retia. AB­
cendens autem in unam
na.vim, qure erat Simonis,
rogavit eum a terrs. reducere
pueillum. Et sedens, docebat
de navicula turbas. U t ces­
savit autem loqui, dixit ad
Simonem : Due in altum, et
laxate retie. vestra in captu­
ram. Et respondens Simon,
dixit illi : Prreceptor, per to­
tam noctem laborantes, nihil
cepimue : in verbo autem
tuo laxabo rete. Et cum
hoc feciesent, concluserunt
piscium multitudinem copi­
oeam ; rumpebatur autem
rete eorum. Et annuerunt
sociis, qui erant in alia navi,
ut venirent, et adjuvarent
eos. Et venerunt, et imple­
verunt ambas naviculas, ita
ut pene mergerentur. Quod
cum videret Simon Petrus,
procidit ad genus. Jesu, di­
cens : Exi a. me, quia. homo
peccator sum, Domine. Stu­
p o r e n im circumdederat
eum, et omnes qui cum illo
erant, in capture. piscium
quam ceperant : similiter
autem Ja.cobum et Joan­
nem, filios Zebedrei, qui
erant socii Simonis. Et a.it
Sequel of the holy Gospel
a.ccording to Luke.
Chapter V.
At that time, it came to p8118,
that when the multitude pressed
upon him to hea.r the word of
God, he stood by the lake of
Genesareth, and saw two ships
standing by the lake ; but the
fishermen were gone out of
them and were washing their
nets. And going into one of
the ships that was Simon's, he
desired him to draw back a
little from the land. And sit­
ting he taught the multitudes
out of the ship. Now when he
had ceased to speak, he said to
Simon : Launch out into the
deep, and let down your nets
for a draught. And Simon,
answering, said to him: Master,
we have laboured all the night,
and have taken nothing ; but at
thy word, I will let down the
net. And when they had done
this, they enclosed a very great
multitude of fishes, and their
net broke. And they beckoned
to their partners that were in
the other ship, that they should
come and help them. And they
came and filled both the ships,
so that they were almost sink­
ing. Which when Simon Peter
saw, he fell down at Jesus'
knees, saying : Depa.rt from me,
for I am a sinful man, 0 Lord.
For he was wholly astonished,
and all that were with him, a.t
the draught of the fishes which
they had taken. And so were
also Ja.mes and John the sons
of Zebedee, who were Simon's
 FOURTH SUNDAY 127
ad Simonem Jesus: Noli partners. And Jeeus saith to
timere : ex hoc jam homines Simon : Fear not; from hence­
eris capiens. Et subductis forth thou shalt catch men.
ad terram nMibus, relictis · And having brought their ships
omnibus secuti aunt ewn. to land, leaving all things they
followed him.

The prophecy and promise made by Jesus to

Simon the son of John is now fulfilled. We were
in amazement, on the day when the Holy Ghost
came down, at the success which attended Peter's
first fishing for men ; he cast in his nets, and it
was the choicest of the sons of Israel that he took,
and offered them to the Lord Jesus. But the bark
of Peter was not to be long confined within Jewish
waters. Insignificant as it seems to human views,
the ship is now sailing on the high seas; it rides
on the deep waters, which are, so St. John tells us,
peoples and nations. 1 The boisterous wind, the
surging billows, the storm, no longer terrify the
boatman of Lake Tiberias ; for he knows that he
has on board Him who is the master of the wa.ves­
Him, that is, who has given the deep as a garment to
clothe the earth.2 Endued with power from on
high,3 Peter has cast his net, the apostolic preaching,
all over the great ocean ; for it is large as the
world, and is to bring the sons of the ' great fish,' 4
the divine lcTHus, 6 to the eternal shore. Grand
indeed is the work assigned to Peter. Though
fellow-labourers have been joined to him in his
divine enterprise, yet does he preside over them
all as their undisputed head, as master of the ship
where Jesus commands in person, and directs all
the operations to be done for the world's salvation.
Our to-day's Gospel very opportunely prepares us
for, and sums up, the teachings included in the
feast of the prince of the apostles, which always
1 Apoc. xvii.15. 'Ps. ciii. 6. 3 St. Luke xxiv. 49.
6 Imcript. Augmtoa.
• Titul. S. Abercii.
128 TIME AFTER PENTECOST

comes close on the fourth Sunday after Pentecost.

For that very reason, we leave for that feast the
detailed enumeration of the glories inherent in the
vicar of Christ ; and limit ourselves, for the present,
to the consideration of the other mysteries contained
in the text before us.
The evangelists have left us the account of two
miraculous fishings made by the apostles in presence
of their divine Lord : one of these, related by
St. Luke, the Church proposes for our consideration
on this Sunday; the other, with its exquisite
symbolism, was put before us by the beloved dis­
ciple on Easter Wednesday. The former of these,
which took place while our Lord was still in the
days of His mortal life, merely states that the net
was cast into the water, and that it broke with the
multitude of the draught ; but no notice is taken
by the evangelist of either the number or the kind
of fish. In the second, it is our risen Lord who
tells the fishermen, His disciples, that the net must
be let down on the right side of their boat ; it
catches, and without breaking, a hundred and fifty
greatfahes; these are brought to the shore where
Jesus is waiting for them, that He may join them
with the mysterious bread and fish that He Him­
self has already prepared for His labourers. 1 The
fathers are unanimous in the interpretation of
these two fishings : they represent the Church;
first of all, the Church as she now is, and next as
she is to be in eternity. As she now is, the Church
is the multitude, without distinction between good
and bad ; but afterwards-that is, after the resur­
rection-the good alone will compose the Church,
and their number will be for ever fixed. ' The
kingdom of heaven,' says our Lord, ' is like to a
net cast into the sea, and gathering together of
all kind of fishes; which, when it was filled, they
1 Si. John xxi. 1-18.
 FOURTH SUNDAY 129
drew out; they chose out the good into vessels,
but the bad they cast forth.' 1
l]To speak with St. Augustine, the fishers of men
have cast forth their nets ; they have taken the
multitude of Christians which we see in wonder­
ment; they have filled the two ships with them, the
two peoples, Jew and Gentile. But what is this
we are told ? The multitude weighs down the
ships, even to the risk of sinking them ; it is what
we witness now : the pressing and mingled crowd
of the baptized is a burden to the Church. Many
Christians there are who live badly; they are
a trouble to, and keep back, the good. Worse
than these, there are those who tear the nets by
their schisms or their heresies ; they are impatient
- of the yoke of unity, and will not come to the
banquet of Christ; they are pleased with them­
selves. Under pretext that they cannot live with
the bad, they break the net which kept them in
the apostolic track, and they die far off the shore.
In how many countries have they not thus broken
the great net of salvation ? The Donatists in
"Africa, the Arians in E gypt, Montanus in Phrygia.,
Manes in Persia ; and since their times, how many
others have excelled in the work of rupture ! Let
us not imitate their folly. If grace have made
us holy, let us be patient with the bad while living
in this world's waters. Let the sight of them
drive us neither to live as they do, nor to leave the
Church. The shore is not far off, where those on
the right, or the good, will alone be permitted to
land, and from which the wicked will be repulsed,
and cast into the abyss.2
In the Offertory, the Christian army sues for that
li,ght of faith which alone can make it sure of
victory; and this, because it tells where the enemy
St. Matt. xiii. 47, 48. 2 S. Auo. Serm. 248-252, pasaim.