A Word for the 18th Sunday After Pentecost

«And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking» (Lk 5:6).

Today, my beloved brothers, there was read the Gospel of Luke on the Lord Jesus Christ’s preaching of the word of God from a boat by the Sea of Gennesaret—then of the Lord’s command to Peter the fisherman to let down his net into the deep, and of the extraordinarily great catch of fish, from which the nets were breaking and the boats were beginning to sink; of the fishermen’s terror at so wondrous a catch; of Peter’s sense of Christ’s divine majesty and his own deep feeling of his own weaknesses; and of Peter’s calling from a fisherman into a fisher of men, and his immediate following after Him. Peter’s following is itself a miracle of Christ.

Word for word, this Gospel reads thus in the Russian translation: «So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the word of God, that He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, and saw two boats standing by the lake; but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat. When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon: launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. But Simon answered and said to Him: Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net. And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying: depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord! For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus told Simon: do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men. So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him» (Lk 5:1-11). Here today’s Gospel ends.

Let us congratulate the simple, humble, and hardworking fisherman Peter on his elevation to the apostolic rank and to the calling of a fisher of men—and, with him, the other fishermen too, James and John, and Andrew, for at that same time all of them followed Christ and became His disciples and apostles, and splendidly carried out their saving task, drawing up the human race, each in his own measure, from the depths of sinful delusion and vanity. But let us turn to the divine Person of the Savior: I am struck with wonder and delight by the most bright, marvelous image of the divine majesty of Christ, as the Creator of all creation and the Savior of mankind; and His human image, too, is altogether beautiful, as one free of every defect; for His whole life, even in His humanity, was perfect—but now I turn my particular attention to His Godhead. Here I see the unreasoning fish obeying Him, filling the fishermen’s nets at the beckoning of His majesty; and here, too, I see rational creation—human beings—obeying His majesty without question, forsaking, at His word, everything: homes, families, their own honest and cheerful trade, and following after Christ, who had nowhere to lay His head—which is itself the greatest of miracles. Here, and in another instance too, I see that He knows every human heart, all our thoughts, intentions, and deeds; that He possesses perfect knowledge of everything past, present, and future. There I see Him as the King of the hosts of angels, who submissively sing of His becoming man and serve Him as Creator at His birth and throughout His earthly life; here I see Him as the fearsome, almighty Commander of evil spirits, who tremble at His majesty and come out of the people possessed by them at a single word from Him, or from the word of the Apostles, to whom He gave power over demons. Here I see His divine majesty over water and air: for the water bears Him upon its surface without wetting Him; the waves lie down in an instant at a single word from Him; the storm, too, falls still in an instant at His word; here He rebukes the fire raging within a living body, and the fire ceases at once; here, by His power, He shakes the whole earth like a tree’s leaf, and shatters ancient stone crags; there He extinguishes the sun in the middle of the day, and deep darkness covers the whole earth; there He shows His divine power over every sickness, decisively healing every ailment and every infirmity in people, either by a word together with the touch of His life-originating hand, or by a word alone; here I see Him as the Master of life and death—for instance, when I see Lazarus, dead four days and already decaying, coming forth from the tomb at His word, entirely healthy and strong, or a dead youth rising up from his bier; there I see Him as the One who will raise the whole human race from the dead, and the righteous Judge of the living and the dead, and the Father of the age to come without end, the King of the endless kingdom; everywhere, from His words and deeds, I see that every creature, animate and inanimate, obeys Him; I see His dominion over the whole universe, over the living and the dead, over all-destroying hell itself; but what especially and pleasantly astonishes me is that He delivers sinners who believe and sincerely repent from countless transgressions, as He did the harlot, the tax collector, and the thief, and sets them upon, and establishes them on, the saving path that leads to eternal life, and saves them from righteous condemnation and eternal torment, and turns sinners into righteous ones. This is above and beyond every other miracle. For it was to save sinners that He came into the world, became man, wearied His most pure feet, Himself taught, worked wonders, suffered, died, and rose from the dead; for this He chose the Apostles and sent them into the world to draw people up out of the abyss of ruin, clothed them entirely with Himself, made them wise and girded them from on high, giving them the Holy Spirit and the power to work countless miracles, to drive out demons, and to shatter all their fantasies and terrors; for this He founded His Church on earth, entrusted to her His divine word, and gave her His saving laws, her sacred hierarchy, her divine services, her Mysteries, every divine power for life and godliness (2Pet 1:3), and her whole order. Glory and thanksgiving to the Lord for His saving, wondrous, and all-good providence! This is what I wished to say to you today concerning the Gospel we have just read—that is, to present to you, according to my own strength, on the basis of the Gospel, in a marvelous light and majesty, the divine, wondrous, all-wise, almighty, and all-saving majesty of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, in order to rouse and strengthen, in myself and in you, faith in Him, hope in Him, and fervent love, reverence, and gratitude toward Him, as toward the eternal God, in order to awaken zeal for the salvation of our own souls, reverence and diligence toward the Holy Church, toward her ministers, called by Him and clothed with His authority—toward the saving ordinances of the Church, toward divine worship, and toward the whole God-established order. Now let me turn my attention to the words the Lord spoke to Peter, after he, terrified by so extraordinarily great a catch of fish and by the creative majesty of the Savior, said to Him: depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord! What did the Lord say to him in reply? — He said: do not be afraid; from now on you will catch men. What do these words mean? They mean this: do not fear Me, Peter, though I am the Creator and the eternal, almighty God, who made and sustains the whole universe by His own word; but I have come not to terrify or destroy you, My rational sheep, seized by the invisible wolf, but to have mercy and to save. The serpent of the abyss—the devil—has caught My beloved creation, made in My own image and likeness, in his own destructive snares; I have come Myself to draw up people, like speechless fish, with My saving, gracious net, out of the depths of sin and ruin, into My gracious and glorious kingdom. Go: I am making you My fellow worker; be a fisher of men; preach to them the word of the kingdom of God, of casting off the yoke of sin through repentance, of mercy and forgiveness for those who repent, of reconciliation with God. This is what the Savior’s words to Peter mean! From this, take note of the high calling of the Apostolate, and the calling of the Apostles’ successors: bishops, priests, and deacons. They are your shepherds and teachers, fellow workers with God; their chief task is to save human souls from sin and eternal ruin, to enlighten them with the light of the Gospel of Christ, to guide them onto the path of virtue, to lead them toward their eternal homeland. Honor them, pray for them, that they may rightly divide the word of truth, that the Lord may clothe them in righteousness and holiness, and hold them in special love, for the sake of their work. In our own day a coldness toward pastors is to be observed; this is an unfavorable sign of our present time, when faith among the greater part of the people is in decline, when the morals of Christians have grown extremely slack and corrupted, when zeal for the salvation of souls has gone out in many, and an exclusive love for this temporal life, and various passions, have become the beginning of every undertaking, of the whole of life.

By the prayers of Your holy Apostles, O Lord, have mercy on and save us all. Amen.