There never has been and will never be a renewal, strengthening and purification of the Church without a return to the Fathers,
Let us admire the skill with which our Lord
arranged all things in view of gaining the men who should afterwards capture
humanity, i.e. the Apostles. They knew the fisherman's calling, but, under the
direction of Christ, they were to be fishing-nets themselves. For, in letting
down in their turn the net of the gospel message, they would gain believers for
their master all over the world. Besides God had already declared by the mouth
of one of his prophets: Many fishermen I have to spread the nets for them; and
after that many huntsmen, to hunt them. The fishers are the Apostles, and the
hunters those, who, in the course of time, would guide Churches or instruct Christians.
Note well that Jesus was not content with
preaching but he also gave signs, he gave proofs of his power, he confirmed his
discourses by wonders. After he had finished speaking, he went on to work
miracles, as his custom was. While he was fishing, he caught his disciples, and
taught them that his will was all-powerful, that nature obeyed his divine
commands. For this purpose, after giving the crowd enough teaching, he must add
to his words some divine act. He commanded Simon Peter and his companions to
push out a little from the shore and to let down their nets for a catch. They
told him they had toiled all the night and caught nothing; but in the name of
Christ they let down the net, which immediately was filled with fish. This
evident and miraculous operation was a picture and a foretelling, in order to
convince them fully that their toil would not remain without reward, that their
efforts to let down the net of preaching the gospel would not be without
result, but that they would catch all peoples without exception in this net.
Notice again that Simon and his friends had not
strength enough to draw the net out of the water. Seized with fear and fright
in face of the miracle, they became speechless, mute with astonishment. Then,
says the Evangelist, they made signs to their partners in the other boat to
come to help them to land the fish. Similarly, many have taken part in the work
of the holy Apostles and many still do: in the first place, the interpreters of
the gospels, then the other masters and pastors and finally the rulers of the
peoples and those WIIO know the true doctrines. To-day men continue to let down
the net and Christ fills it. And he calls to conversion men who find themselves
in the depths of the sea according to the expression of the Psalm, that is in
the waves and tempests of the world.
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