Homily of His Eminence, Archbishop Benjamin 13th Sunday After Pentecost
September 22, 2024 – Luke 5:1-11 – Annunciation Church, Milwaukie, OR
” … They enclosed a great shoal of fish; and as their nets were breaking, they beckoned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.” As I point out often, it is very easy for us to hear sections of the Gospel in isolation from each other, as individual and unrelated stories, rather than in context, and therefore miss some important connections between them. This catch of fish in Luke took place after Jesus taught in Capernaum on the Sabbath where he healed the mother-in-law of Peter, one of those men that was in the boat. Luke also records that, before entering into Peter’s house, while in the synagogue teaching, Jesus cast out a demon from a man. And, as the demon departed the man, he cried out: “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” Now here is the interesting part, the demons recognize who Jesus is, but the people who have just witnessed the demon being cast out, don’t. Luke records they were all amazed, but they still do not understand. And then, as if to underscore this confusion, Luke reports other healings took place that day and that the demons came out of many, crying: “You are the Son of God!” And Jesus rebuked the demons and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ. This happens time and time again in the gospels. The demons recognized him, but the people, and even his disciples, did not. They were just not sure.
So, the fishermen, including Peter, were among those who witnessed the testimony of the demons. They were there as Christ healed the sick. But they did not understand what and who He was.
Later Jesus got into Simon Peter’s boat to preach and teach the people from a point just a little from the shore. When he is finished, Jesus asked the fishermen to go further out into the deep and to let down their nets. It is Simon Peter who answers: “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But, at your word I will let down the nets.” And, when the nets are brought up, they were so full that they began to break open.
The Fathers of the Church see in this miracle a type of the Church and the work of the Church which is nothing more than to cast the net of the Gospel in to the depths, that is the world, and to gather mankind, the fish, to Christ who is present in the boat.
St. Augustine, in commenting on this passage, reminds us there are two miraculous catches of fish recorded in the gospels: this one which takes place before the Resurrection and another one in the 21st chapter of the Gospel of St. John that takes place after Christ rises from the dead. At first glance, there is very little that distinguishes one from the other. But, if we take a close look, the catch recorded here by St. Luke is without number. In John’s Gospel, however, a specific, fixed number is recorded, 153. St. Augustine goes on to say that the two catches of fish stand for the whole Church, “both as it is now and as it will be at the resurrection from the dead. Now, as you can see, it contains countless numbers, both good and bad. After the resurrection it will contain only the good, and a definite number of them.”
Some of the Fathers see in the two boats, Peter’s and the one of his partners, an image of the Old and New Testaments. The fishermen toiled all night but caught nothing. They worked in the darkness without being able to see clearly what they were doing. Similarly, the prophets of the Old Testament toiled as if in darkness, unable to see clearly the One for whom they were casting their nets. Theirs was a net made of images and types that would be fulfilled when the Messiah came. They did not see him except in figures of things to come. But when Jesus entered the boat with the fishermen, the situation changed. They met with success beyond their dreams and caught a multitude of fish.
I would also like to point out something else: Simon Peter’s reaction. It is interesting that in both the Luke preresurrection account and the catch of fish recorded by St. John that took place after the resurrection, Peter reacts very much the same.
In this morning’s account, having witnessed those healings, indeed the healing of his own mother-in-law, and the testimony of the departing demons, and now, having caught this amazing number of fish, Peter fell to his knees and said: “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, 0 Lord.” We have a confession, if you will, of Peter. For a brief moment, he recognizes who Jesus is and his life is changed.
In the event recorded by St. John, Peter and John, with some others, have spent the entire night fishing without having caught a thing. But, the risen Lord, standing on the shore tells them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat. Once again, as if to identify himself as the same Jesus who worked the same miracle before, the nets are filled with fish. John says to Peter: “It is the Lord!” And, Peter who John says, was naked, wrapped himself up in his fishermen’s coat and jumped into the sea. It is then, as if to parallel what had happened before by Capernaum that Peter confesses his love for the Lord three times and is told to feed Christ’s sheep. Peter’s three-time denial is absolved by his triple confession of love for the Lord. And with this second confession a simple fisherman is transformed into a powerful witness of the resurrected Christ and becomes an Apostle. At last, having encountered the risen Lord, Peter knew to what the demons recognized in Capernaum earlier, that Jesus was the “Holy One” and the “Son of God”.
Amen.