Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

Raphael, The Miraculous Draft of Fishes

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 the 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 said to 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. (Luke 5:1–11)

He is not teaching him, I say, how to catch fish with a net but how to collect human beings by faith, for faith does on earth what a net does in the waters. Just as a net does not let what it holds slip out, neither does faith permit those whom it gathers to go astray, but as the one brings what it has caught in its bosom, so to say, to the boat, so the other brings those whom it has gathered in its breast, so to say, to peace. That you may understand that the Lord was speaking of spiritual fishing, however, Peter says: Teacher, laboring through the whole night we have caught nothing, but at your word I shall let down the nets. It is as if he were saying: Since through the whole night our fishing has brought us nothing and we have been laboring in vain, now I shall not fish with fishing gear but with grace, not with the diligence acquired by skill but with the perseverance acquired by devotion. At your word, he says, I shall let down the nets. We read that the word is the Lord, the Savior, as the Evangelist says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. When Peter lets down the nets at the word, therefore, he is in fact letting down teachings in Christ, and when he unfolds the tightly-woven and well-ordered nets at the behest of the master he is really laying out words in the name of the Savior in a fitting and clear fashion; by these he is able to save not creatures but souls. Laboring through the whole night, he says, we have caught nothing. Peter, who beforehand was unable to see in order to make a catch, enduring darkness without Christ, had indeed labored through the whole night, but when the Savior’s light shone upon him the darkness scattered and by faith he began to discern in the deep what he could not see with his eyes. Peter clearly endured the night until the day, which is Christ, became present to him.

Maximus of Turin, Sermon 110.2