A Word for the 18th Sunday After Pentecost (6)

«Do not be afraid: from now on you will catch men» (Lk 5:10).

To the glory of God and the salvation of Christian souls, I wish today, beloved brothers, to say a brief word on the catching of men. When the Apostle Peter, having let down his fishing net into the Sea of Gennesaret at the Lord’s word, drew it up full of a great multitude of fish, though he had labored all night before and caught nothing—and when, terrified by so wondrous a catch, he fell down at the Savior’s knees and begged Him to depart from him, as from a sinner unworthy to be with the Lord—the Savior said to him: do not be afraid; from now on you will catch men—that is, this wondrous catch of fish by Peter signified his future successes, with the Savior’s cooperation, in the preaching of the Gospel, or in drawing people up out of the abyss of ruin into eternal life. The catching of men out of the abyss of ruin into unending, blessed life in the heavens continues, brothers, even now, and will continue until the end of the age, when the doors of the kingdom of heaven will be shut and the net of the kingdom will be entirely full. Yes, beloved brothers, we are being caught, caught continually: on the one hand, by the Lord, His Angels, the Apostles, the God-bearing men—through callings of love and peace into the kingdom of eternal life, eternal light, rest, and blessedness, through the voice of conscience, the word of God, divine worship, the Mysteries of the faith; on the other hand, by Satan and his accomplices—the spirits of malice beneath the heavens, and lawless people—through various seductions, into the kingdom of eternal death, eternal darkness, and comfortless, unending torment. «Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour» (1Pet 5:8), the Apostle Peter warns Christians; the holy Apostle Paul wishes that Christians who do not live in a Christian manner might «come to themselves out of the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will» (2Tim 2:26).

We are caught, brothers: because we are free-willed sinners, limping on both feet, the Lord catches us: because we, though Christians, wander from the true path, forget and have forgotten our Benefactor and Creator, have gone away from Him into a far country by the path of attachment to the goods of this temporal life—and without the net of His teaching, without His divine word, without sanctification and renewal by His life-giving Mysteries, we would perish beyond recall; on the other hand, Satan continually catches us with various baits of sensual, swiftly vanishing pleasures, with the allure of various passions: because he sees the possibility of this in our sinful inclination toward the pleasures of coarse sensuality, and, therefore, the possibility of destroying us forever. So then, beloved brothers, let each of us keep a strict watch over himself; let each look to see whose net he is in: whether in the Lord’s net, and if in the Lord’s net, then let him bless his own lot, for he is in the net of life—but let him also watch, lest he fall out of it, and lest he become entangled in the devil’s nets, and, having become entangled, let him strive to free himself from it as quickly as possible, for his position is ruinous: he is caught in the net of death. All Christians who follow Christ the Savior in faith and deeds, «making no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts» (Rom 13:14), and crucifying it «with its passions and lusts» (Gal 5:24), are in the net of God, while Christians of little faith or unbelieving, living without Christ in heart and on tongue, without prayers and deeds of virtue, doing the will of the flesh and of their own thoughts, are in the net of the devil. Would you like to see how this twofold catching happens—one unto salvation, the other unto ruin? Let me give one example, which thoughtful Christians will, by analogy, apply also to many other instances in their own lives. Here, a humble monk or nun comes up to you with a cross, in the name of the cross, or a beggar in the name of Christ: some ask you to cast a mite from your surplus into the treasury of the Church of God, another asks you to give him something for his necessary sustenance. Be attentive, beloved, to these persons: in their person Christ Himself undoubtedly comes to you, and reminds you, through them, of His own words spoken in the Gospel: «inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me» (Mt 25:40). He wishes, by your very act of mercy, to catch you in the net of His kingdom; He seeks, in your almsgiving, an occasion to justify you, sinners, at His dread judgment, which will inevitably come to pass. Take heed, then: give what you can to the one who asks, in the name of Christ; be merciful, that you yourselves may be counted worthy of mercy on that day, fearsome for all; do not fear: your almsgiving will not be forgotten; redeem, while there is still time, your own sinful soul at the price of mercy to the servants of the Lord. But now, I see, the servants of Christ walk away from some of you with nothing. I look again: an announcement is brought to you, inviting you to the horse races, and what do I see? You go with a contented look; you spare no money, so as to watch and delight in the brutish spectacle. I warn you, beloved, for the time to come, be on your guard: here Satan is catching you in his own nets, and your silver coins, spent at the racetrack, will convict you on that day—of your attachment to empty pleasures, of your neglect of the works of faith and piety, of the works of mercy toward the lesser brethren of Christ, of your pagan manner of life. You may laugh at me, perhaps, on hearing these words, and call me a dreamer, an unsolicited moralizer, a man behind the times. But I pity you, and I say to you: «woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep» (Lk 6:25). Woe to you who spend your time at the horse races; woe to you who applaud and laugh at the animals and their riders. Woe to you: because you have not infrequently traded the church service of a feast day for the horse races and human frenzy; because you have abandoned the Church—your Mother, your Savior—and neglected her divine services, and live not as Christians but as pagans; woe—because you have refused those in need of their daily bread, in order to save your money for the entertainment of the spectacle; woe—because many of you, after the racetrack, as at every other time, give yourselves over to drunkenness and dissipation; and to what better end could animal and human races ever lead? I do not say this of everyone, but of some; let conscience tell each one to whom this is said. Is this what Christians ought to do, for whom the Son of God came down to earth, that He might lead them up from earth to heaven, that, in place of empty, coarse pleasures degrading to their immortal, God-like soul, He might give them eternal blessedness—a blessedness such as has never even entered their heart here? Is this what a Christian does, one being prepared for the blessed contemplation of the Thrice-Radiant, One Godhead? I warn, as a shepherd, the beloved flock entrusted to me by God, against this soul-damaging attachment to attending circuses and theaters, and I entreat everyone, in the name of God, to be attentive to themselves, to cleanse themselves of every defilement of flesh and spirit, and especially to be merciful to the poor. Each one’s day is near, beloved brothers—that is, the day of death and of the particular judgment over the sinful soul. «The righteous Judge is at the door» (Jac 5:9). But the enemy’s nets are everywhere too. «Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation» (Mt 26:41).

Be, O God, the Defender of our souls, for we all walk in the midst of the enemy’s nets; deliver us from them, and catch all of us in the net of Your kingdom, and save us, O good One, as the Lover of mankind. Amen.