Day: June 30, 2024

“Thou shalt catch men”

Today’s Gospel illustrates rather wonderfully the Epistle reading from 1 Peter. We meet within Petertide, in the Octave of St. Peter and St. Paul, the twin pillars of the Apostolic Church. In a way, today’s readings provide a kind of commentary on the Church and our life of Faith. “Be ye all of one mind,” the Epistle begins and ends with the command to “sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.” And in between? A way of facing suffering and hardship.

The Gospel begins with the people pressing upon Jesus to hear the word of God. It ends with Jesus saying to Simon Peter “from henceforth thou shalt catch men,” and he and James and John, his fellow fishermen, “for[saking] all, and followed him.” And in between? Nothing but an image of the futility of our lives, it might seem. “Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing,” Simon Peter says to Jesus. Nothing. The point is clear, I think. The ultimate end and good of our humanity is not found in the riches and abundance of the world and in our human endeavours and labours. In and of themselves they are nothing. Something more is wanted and looked for.

The Epistle shows us what that something more is. It is our communion with one another through our communion with God, “having compassion one of another,” blessing one another because we are called to blessedness, to an end that is beyond the world. But does that mean forsaking the world? It might seem so from the conclusion of the Gospel. But that would be to overlook what lies in between the opening lines of the Epistle and the Gospel, each of them a commentary on our lives as lived in the world but not of the world. In the Epistle, it is loving as brethren, forsaking evil and doing good, seeking peace and following after it, being followers of that which is good even in the face of evil and suffering. And why? Because of Christ.

In the Gospel, it is in what follows Simon Peter’s statement of futility: “nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net.” The point is not that there is suddenly wealth and abundance materially speaking, “a great multitude of fishes” so much so that “their net brake,” an image of what is more than we can handle or need. God does provide, to be sure, but in different ways. No. The deeper point is that “apart from me ye can do nothing” (Jn. 15.5), as Jesus says. The deeper point is about our abiding in him and he is us in his body the Church. Apart from him we are nothing and our lives are empty and nothing.

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