Gospel of the Sunday (Luke 5:1–11)
AT THAT TIME, when the multitudes pressed upon Jesus to hear the word of God, He stood by the lake of Genesareth. And He 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 sitting, 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 sinking.
Which when Simon Peter saw, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying: Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was wholly astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken; and so were also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners.
And Jesus saith to Simon: Fear not: from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And having brought their ships to land, leaving all things, they followed Him.
Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide on the Miraculous Draught of Fishes
Behold here the fruit and reward of obedience. Peter had said: At Thy word I will let down the net. Christ wrought this miracle for two reasons.
First, to provide for their livelihood and to prepare them for their future vocation. It is as though He said: I have chosen you to be My disciples. Therefore do not object that you must earn your living by the labour of fishing. Behold this miraculous catch and believe that I can more easily and more abundantly provide all that is necessary for your life than you can obtain it by your own efforts.
Secondly, by this miracle He wished to foreshadow that they would soon become fishers of men and would bring an abundant harvest of souls to God.
Out of joy and astonishment they were unable to speak, and therefore merely signalled to their companions to come and help them.
Christ says, as it were: Be not troubled by this miracle. Henceforth thou shalt be a fisherman in a far nobler manner. Thou shalt catch not fishes but men.
Peter will not catch men as wild beasts are caught, by wounding or overpowering them. As fishes are enclosed by the net without being slain by it, so he will win men, not by violence or compulsion, but by the power of God’s grace and the working of the Holy Ghost.
In a deeper sense, this means that Peter will bring men to life. Ordinary fishermen catch fish in order to obtain food, but Peter will catch men in order to give them life. He will raise them from the death of sin to the life of righteousness. As fishes die when they are taken from the water, so the man whom Peter catches dies indeed to sin, but begins to live unto God.
In the spiritual sense, Peter’s boat is the Church. Peter and his successors stand at her helm. Therefore the Pope is the chief fisherman to whom these words of Christ apply in a particular manner: Thou shalt catch men.
It is therefore the duty of the Roman Pontiff, either directly or through others, to bring the nations to Christ. Thus the first Bishops of Rome converted the Roman people and sent apostolic men to preach the Gospel to the heathen. Thus Saint Gregory the Great sent Saint Augustine to England to win that nation for Christ.
Saint Ambrose observes that some, such as the martyrs, are caught as with a hook, while the great multitude of the faithful are brought in by the net. And he adds:
The nets are the means whereby the Apostles catch men. For the nets do not destroy what they catch, but preserve it; they bring to the surface that which lay hidden in the depths.
Therefore the nets are a fitting image of apostolic preaching, which draws men out of the depths of the world into the light of Christ.