How Christ turned Simon Peter's trade into a parable of Christian ministry
Before Simon Peter could become a fisher of men, Christ let him labour all night in vain—only to reward his obedience with abundance.
Before Simon Peter could become a fisher of men, Christ let him labour all night in vain—only to reward his obedience with abundance.
Editor’s Notes
The following commentary pertains to the Miraculous Draught of Fishes (Like 5.1-11), read at Mass on the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost. It takes place near the beginning of Christ’s public life—and although many modern productions present it as the first encounter of Christ with St Peter and the others, the latter had already received a preliminary calling (with their formal election as the Twelve coming later). It takes place after the healing of St Peter’s mother-in-law, and is followed in St Luke’s Gospel by the cleansing of the leper and the calling of Levi / St Matthew.
The miracle inaugurates a new stage in the disciples’ formation. It reveals Christ’s power over nature and souls, and marks the transformation of Peter and his companions from fishermen to “fishers of men.” It shows how obedience, even when human judgement hesitates, leads to spiritual fruitfulness.
But the significance of the miracle is not limited to the four Apostles mentioned. It is a parable of the Church’s mission: the net of the Gospel gathers souls of every kind. It reassures the Church in her trials: grace, rather than human strength, is what secures her success.
Although St Peter says to Our Lord, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man,” the Roman Liturgy preempts him by opening the Mass with the Introit taken from Psalm 26:
Introit: The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear? The Lord is my life’s refuge; of whom should I be afraid? My enemies that trouble me, themselves stumble and fall. V Though an army encamp against me, my heart will not fear.
Though weak and unworthy, we are upheld by grace—and as the enemies of truth stumble and fall, the net of Christ still gathers souls.
In this first part, Fr. Coleridge tells us…
How our Lord transformed a fruitless night of labour into a parable of apostolic mission.
That toil in his service often seems unrewarded, yet may suddenly be crowned with grace.
Why Peter’s awe and humility mark him as both unworthy and chosen for spiritual authority.
He shows us that the apostolic life is a path of hidden labour, sudden abundance, and holy fear.
The Miraculous Draught of Fishes
The Training of the Apostles, Part I
Chapter II
St. Luke v. 1—11
Story of the Gospels, § 37
Burns and Oates, London, 1884
Significant actions of this time
At the close of his account of the Sermon on the Mount, St. Matthew tells us that great multitudes followed our Lord when He came down from the mountain on which that Sermon had been delivered.
This is probably meant to show us that He continued His course of preaching throughout the country for some space of time after the Sermon, and that during that course He was followed from place to place by large crowds, forming a body of continual listeners to His teaching, in distinction from those which were gathered together in each place through which He passed by the fame of His arrival. We have already pointed out how the main features of the history would in such a case be the same day after day, and that thus there would be no special reason for recording the details of the teaching.
Laborious as such seasons of continued preaching must have been, it is only natural, therefore, that what is preserved to us concerning the incidents of this period should relate to actions of our Lord which must have stood out as singular and remarkable at the time, and which had a significance of their own, in the unfolding of the mysteries by which He manifested the powers and prerogatives of His Sacred Humanity—powers and prerogatives which He was to hand on to His Church after Him.
We have now to speak of one of these significant actions, the great importance of which lies in itself rather than in the particular moment at which it occurred, though it has a very remarkable bearing on the preparation of the Apostles for the great work to which they were being gradually drawn.
Narrative of the miracle
It may perhaps have been in some short pause in the course of active preaching of which we have spoken, that our Lord was for the moment at Capharnaum. The disciples who had accompanied and assisted Him in the circuit from which He had returned had not as yet been called by Him to abandon their homes and ordinary occupations at such times.
The two pairs of brothers, Peter and Andrew, James and John, had returned for the few days of this stay at Capharnaum to their boats and nets. It was the practice to begin the fishing at night, and they had spent the night before the morning of which we are now to speak on the lake, but without any success. It had been a night of toil and watching, and all in vain. When the morning came, they put back to the shore, and washed and folded their nets. There they found our Lord, and as He was about to teach, the crowds, as usual, gathered round Him, eager to hear, till the pressure became great, and He stepped up into the boat of Simon Peter, asking him to push off a few yards from the shore, that He might address the people with greater ease.
He went on with His instruction to the end—probably for a long time, as was His wont. When it was time to dismiss the crowd for their mid-day meal, our Lord turned to Simon Peter, and bade him put out towards the middle of the lake and let down his nets. Peter at once obeyed with joy. He told our Lord that they had toiled all night and had caught nothing, but he would gladly cast his nets again at a word from Him.
‘We have laboured all night and caught nothing, but at Thy word I will let down the net.’
The words are full of plaintive simplicity and enthusiastic faith, the natural fruit of that attentive listening to our Lord which had made him forget all his trouble and filled him with devotion. The nets were let down, and when the fishermen began to draw them in, they found that they contained an immense number of fishes. The net was in danger of breaking. Indeed, it seems to have been already broken.
Peter and Andrew signalled to their partners, who were still in the other boat, close to the land, to come to them. Both boats were soon filled with the fishes, and were in danger of sinking before they could reach the shore. The evident miracle struck the humble Apostle with fear and reverence at the close presence of Him Whom he had been gradually led by the teaching of the Eternal Father to recognize as more than man. He threw himself at our Lord’s feet, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.’
His astonishment was shared by his partners, his brother, and the small crew of the boat. Our Lord bade him fear nothing:
‘From henceforth thou shalt be catching men.’
The Apostles’ experience of our Lord’s preaching
The simple narrative of the Evangelist has been pondered with loving reverence by the contemplative souls of all ages in the Church, seeking to fill in the picture where St. Luke has drawn it in outline only, to make it clear where it seems obscure, and to gather the moral lessons or the mysterious and even prophetic meaning which it may be intended to convey.
The skilful fishers of the lake had sought their prey at the time and place which, according to the teaching of experience, were the most promising of success. Their failure after so many hours of weary and tedious toil may have been a serious disappointment, for their families may have been left without their aid during the weeks of their absence from home in the company of our Lord. He had already spoken to them of their future occupation in His service in language borrowed from their simple craft, for, when He had called them to follow Him at the outset of His course of preaching, He had promised to make them fishers of men.
They had now for some time seen what were the conditions of that toil for souls to which He invited them. In the first place, then, it was a pursuit of immense and continuous labour; it involved bodily toil and mental fatigue—a strain on the attention, an indifference to discomfort and weariness, a sort of slavery to the calls of a multitude of persons, each too eager for his or her own needs to be at all considerate as to the trouble which it might cost to attend to them, an obligation to leave anything at any time in order to minister to sudden requirements, which involved an absolute neglect of self, even to the extent of the sacrifice of necessary rest and of the time for refreshment, of which the labours of their own hard and sometimes dangerous calling were but a very faint picture.
It implied, moreover, a readiness of self-adaptation and self-sacrifice, such as that of which St. Paul afterwards spoke, when he said he had become all things to all men, for which nothing but the most consummate charity could furnish the strength, and nothing short of the most exquisite virtue could furnish the skill, the prudence, and the delicacy.
Their joy at hearing him
Then, again, they had seen this work in the hands of our Lord marked by the most marvellous successes and the most glorious fruits. Though He spake as never man spoke before or since, still the effect of His words seemed to go beyond their intrinsic power. Movements of grace such as could ordinarily issue in nothing short of heroic acts of virtue seemed to be common on every side. The air seemed full of a new power.
Nothing is so frightful in this world as the sight of an immense mass of men, swayed irresistibly by some overwhelming evil impulse. Nothing is so magnificent as a like number of men carried away by the enthusiasm of some mighty inspiration which comes from above. This is the secret of the marvellous effects which are sometimes seen when the word of God, in the mouth of a great saint, becomes for the time the master of a great audience, or when an immense multitude is collected and urged on by the attraction of some great festival or pilgrimage.
In the case of the preaching of our Lord, it may be said that both these mighty influences were combined. His presence made a festival wherever He went. He was Himself the centre of the influence which draws men in all generations to great shrines which are blessed by God, and the most marvellous of His own preachers was a child by His side. And besides all this, the disciples had witnessed the wonderful prodigies of power and mercy by which His mission had been attested, the devils cowering before Him, the diseases of the body changed into health by His touch or at His word.
But at the same time, the disciples had already learnt that the evangelical calling was one which had its difficulties and even its defeats, as well as its triumphs and its incomparable glories. In this respect, it was but too like to that calling of their own to which He had compared it. It was a pursuit which, even in our Lord’s hands, was not of certain or uniform success.
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The Miraculous Draught of Fishes
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