Launching off into the deep

Introduction

Nets and fish

Much of the backdrop for the period immediately following the resurrection of the Lord takes place along the shores of the Sea of Galilee.[1] That’s to be expected; after all, the apostles were fishermen, and after the death and resurrection of Jesus, they were simply back at their job of making a living.

A miraculous catch of fish (John 21: 1-19)

On one occasion (related on this third Sunday after Easter, cycle c), Simon Peter, Nathanael, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples are in a boat fishing on the Sea of Galilee. Though they work hard at it all night long, they don’t catch a thing. Then the risen Lord appears, but the apostles don’t know it is he. He calls out to them from shore, saying, “Hey lads, have you caught anything?” They yell back, “Not a thing.” Then Jesus orders them to cast their net on the right side of the boat. They obey, and make a miraculous catch of 153 fish. Here St. Jerome makes an interesting observation that ancient zoologists calculated the number of species of fish in the sea to be 153. So the number is symbolic for “a mighty huge catch.” When Peter, “lightly clad,” realizes it is the Lord, he tightens his tunic about his waist, jumps into the water and swims to shore.

Another miraculous catch of fish (Lk 5:1-9)

We recall another miraculous catch of fish. This one happened during the earthly lifetime of Jesus. He is in Peter’s boat on Lake Gennesaret, and Jesus commands him, saying, “Launch off into the deep and let your nets down for a catch.” Though Peter complains, “We’ve worked hard all night long, and haven’t caught a thing,” he obeys anyway. He launches off into the deep, drops his nets, and they catch “such a great number of fish that their nets were about to break.” The miraculous catch makes Peter fall to his knees and exclaim, “Depart from me, Oh Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Despite the avowal of sinfulness, and perhaps precisely because of it, Jesus says to Peter, “You’re just the man I want. From now on I will make you a fisher of men” (Lk 5:1-9).

On another occasion during his lifetime, Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee sees two brothers, Peter and Andrew, fishing. To them also he makes the same promise, saying, “Come follow me and I shall make you fishers of men” (Mt 4:18-22). “Fishers of men”: the New Testament uses the role of fishing as a symbol of apostolic mission, as a symbol of the mission of gathering people to Christ. [2]

The crisis of fish and fishers

The fishing was poor at times for the apostles. It is also poor for us today. We remember the old days when the fishing was really good. We too were pulling in 153 fish in one catch. Church membership was high. There were multiple Sunday masses, and the masses were filled with multiple Sunday worshippers. Today there is a crisis of numbers, and this is true especially in Europe.

But scarce these days are not only the fish, but also the fishers, “the fishers of men.” We remember the old days when a diocese or a religious order would ordain as many as ten to fifteen priests in one catch. Or a motherhouse would veil as many as fifteen to twenty nuns in one shot. With the religious downsizing going on in these times, parishes now have to join together to form coalitions with funny names like “the Church of the Three Holy Women.” And some young priest, like the circuit judges of early frontier history, has to “pony-back it” from one parish to another for daily mass. And the nicer the poor guy is, the sooner he is going to wear out.

The solution to the crisis: obedience

The gospel today indicates the solution to the crisis of fish and fishers, namely obedience to Christ. When Jesus is still alive with his earthly life, and the apostle Peter and his partners are fishing all night long on Lake Gennesaret and are catching nothing, he orders them “to launch off into the deep and drop their nets.” Despite the terrible fishing of the previous night, they obey the command of Jesus, and the catch of fish is so great, it almost breaks their nets (Lk 5: 1-9). After the resurrection, when Peter and his men are fishing on the Sea of Galilee and are catching nothing, the risen Lord appears to them and commands them to cast their net on the right side of the boat. Again, they obey the command of Jesus, and pull in a miraculous catch of fish (Jn 21: 1-19).

The job-interview

The crisis is the scarcity of fish and fishers. The solution is obedience to Christ. That thought needs some explanation:

After the appearance of the risen Lord on the shore of the Sea of Tiberius where they breakfasted on fish and bread, there follows that well-known commissioning of Peter to a universal pastorate over the entire church. That section, particularly dear to us Catholics, is a kind of job-interview which Jesus is holding with Peter, whom he has in mind to make pastor over the universal church. It is a strange job-interview. Unlike most others, this one asks but one question, and asks it three times! Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord, you know that I do.” “ Simon, son of John, do you love me?” “Yes, Lord, you know that I do.” “ Simon, son of John, do you love me?” “Yes, Lord, you know that I do” (Jn 21:15-19). The threefold question cuts Peter to the quick, for it reminds him of Good Friday when, at the trial of Jesus, bystanders ask him three times, “Do you know this man?” And three times he denies knowing him. At the third denial, scripture says, “And immediately a cock crowed” (Mt 26:74).

ü How solve the crisis of fish and fishers in the church today? By obedience to Christ: that is to say, by the church (you and me and all of us) launching off into the deep and changing the job-interview for ordained ministry in use in the church today: Jesus did not ask Peter three times, “Are you celibate? Are you celibate? Are you celibate?” Peter wasn’t celibate. The gospels say that he had a mother-in-law, and that one day Jesus cured her of a fever (Mt 8: 14-15).

ü How solve the crisis of fish and fishers? By obedience to Christ: that is to say, by us, the church, launching off into the deep and changing the job-interview in use in the church today: Jesus did not ask Peter, “Are you a male? Are you a male? Are you a male?” Indeed, he was a male, a rough and tough fisherman. But that had nothing to do with ministry or mission.

ü How solve the crisis of fish and fishers in the church today? By obedience to Christ: that is to say, by launching off into the deep and changing the job-interview in use in the church today: Jesus did not ask Peter, “Are you a saint? Are you a saint? Are you a saint?” He was a sinner who denied Jesus three times. And even before he denied Jesus, Peter knew he wasn’t a saint. When Jesus orders him and his men to launch off into the deep and drop their nets, and they make a miraculous catch of fish, Peter falls to his knees and protests, “Depart from me, oh Lord, for I am a sinful man.” That avowal pleases Jesus, and he immediately promises to make Peter a fisher of men (Lk 5:10).

The church (that’s you and me and all of us) must launch off into the deep and change the current job-interview. Ask not about celibacy or about maleness or about sinlessness or anything else. Ask only about love. “Peter do you love me?” And ask it three times, just to make sure you have the right candidate for mission and ministry before you, namely, a loving person. When Jesus is finally assured that he has before himself the right candidate for pastorate over the universal church, namely, a warm, loving human being, he then confers the mission, saying, “Feed my lambs, feed my sheep.”

[i]

Conclusion

Written in gold

After the conferral of the universal pastorate, Peter went forth and was true to his threefold avowal (“Yes, Lord, I love thee.”). He loved the Lord, and he loved him unto the end. Then with the blood of his martyrdom in 67 A.D., in the Neronian Gardens in Rome, he washed away the sin of his threefold denial by his martyrdom through crucifixion. Then, indeed, in his crucifixion Peter “stretched out his arms,” as Jesus predicted he would, as Jesus himself “stretched out his arms” upon the cross. The remains of Peter were buried at the foot of the Vatican Hill in Rome. In the third century Emperor Constantine the Great built an imposing basilica over the site, which lasted for 1300 years. Then in the sixteenth century the present St. Peter’s replaced it.

Now today, as you enter St. Peter’s Basilica, that marvelous miracle in marble, and as you look up up up into its lofty heights, you see there the Job-interview written in gold; written with letters six feet tall in gold mosaic, both in Latin and in Greek: “Simon Ioannis, amas me? “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” “Pasce oves meas.” “Feed my sheep.” If you can read Latin or Greek, or if you know what the words mean, the letters are so immense, so outstanding, so loud you can hear the voices of Jesus and Peter resounding and echoing throughout that huge edifice, inviting the church (you and me and all of us), in our crisis of fish and fishers, to be obedient and to launch off into the deep.

[1] Also called “The Sea of Tiberius” or ”Lake Gennesaret.”

[2] Come to think of it, there are really three miraculous catches of fish: the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish is the third. On that occasion too the fishing had not been very good: there were scarcely two fish on hand, but these Jesus multiplied so greatly that there was enough to feed five thousand people, with twelve baskets full of leftovers.