The Miraculous Catch: “At Thy Word”

Every autumn, after the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the Church begins to read on Sundays, at the Divine Liturgy, from the Gospel written by the holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke. The first of these Sunday Gospels tells of the miraculous catch of fish. Simon, a fisherman of Galilee, had toiled a whole night without catching anything. At Christ’s command he let down his nets once more and caught so many fish that the nets began to break. From that day Simon, whom the Church honours as the holy Apostle Peter, left everything and followed the Lord, together with James and John, the sons of Zebedee.

Simon’s Boat

Saint Luke places the event on the shore of the lake of Gennesaret, also called the Sea of Galilee. The people pressed upon Christ “to hear the word of God” (Luke 5:1). Two boats stood by the shore, and the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. For them, the night’s work had ended without a single fish.

The Lord entered Simon’s boat, “prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land”, and, sitting in it, taught the people (Luke 5:3).

Saint Theophylact, Archbishop of Ohrid and Bulgaria, wrote an explanation of the Gospel according to Luke for the faithful. He observes that the Lord flees from glory, while the crowds run after Him all the more. By entering the boat, Christ had all of them before His face, and not one was left behind Him.

The same Father pauses over a small word in the Gospel. The Lord did not command Simon to put out from the land; He “prayed him”, that is, He asked him. In this Saint Theophylact sees the gentleness of Christ. And in Simon he sees an obedient man, who received into his boat Someone he did not yet truly know, and obeyed Him in everything.

“We Have Toiled All the Night”

When He had left speaking, Christ said to Simon: “Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught” (Luke 5:4). To a fisherman this command seemed pointless. Simon knew that night is the time for fishing, and the night just past had been fruitless.

His answer holds both the weariness and the obedience: “Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing”, and then, “nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net” (Luke 5:5).

Saint Theophylact shows that Simon did not take this command as a burden. He did not complain that, after a night of fruitless labour, he was being asked for yet more labour. He answered with trust, and the Father says that Simon was fervent in faith “even before faith”. Simon had met Jesus before, for He had healed his mother-in-law in his house (Luke 4:38–39), but he had not yet entered into the mystery of the One who now sat in his boat. He called Him “Master”, and yet he bowed his fisherman’s skill before His word.

Saint Nikolai Velimirović, Bishop of Ohrid and Žiča in the twentieth century, also dwells on Peter’s obedience. He reckons that Peter must have been sleepless, weary and dispirited after a night of vain labour, and yet he carried out Christ’s word at once. For this reason Saint Nikolai says that “God rewards obedience more than toil”.

In his sermon for this Sunday, Saint Cleopa of Sihăstria, a spiritual father at Sihăstria Monastery in Romania in the twentieth century, sees in Peter’s words a confession of obedience. For him, “at thy word” means “believing Thy word, I will obey”. Saint Cleopa says that from this obedience Peter’s fruits began to appear. First came the fish of that day. Then the fruits grew and multiplied, through the souls the Apostle later brought to the Kingdom of God.

The Breaking Net

“And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake” (Luke 5:6). They beckoned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and the fish filled both boats, so that they began to sink. Saint Theophylact says that Simon called the others by a sign, because fear no longer let him speak.

The Fathers of the Church also saw in this catch an image of the work the Apostles would do in the world. According to Saint Theophylact, the night without fish is the time before the coming of Christ. Then the teachers of the Law given through Moses toiled all “night” and caught nothing. When Christ, the Light of the world, came, it became day. Then the Apostles, at the Lord’s word, let down the net of the Gospel and caught a multitude of men. Those in the other boat, who came to help, are the shepherds and teachers of the Church in every age. They interpret the teaching of the Apostles and so help them to catch men for Christ.

Saint Ephrem the Syrian, in his commentary on the Gospel, also sees in the night of toil an image of the prophets, who laboured before the coming of the Lord. The fishermen called by a sign from the other boat represent, in his reading, the seventy-two disciples whom the Lord later sent out to preach, for the first were too few to gather in the whole catch.

Saint Maximus, Bishop of Turin in the fifth century, sees this night in Peter’s soul as well. As long as Peter did not have Christ, he says, all was darkness for him, and that is why he had toiled all night. When the light of the Saviour was poured out upon him, the darkness was scattered, and through faith he began to see in the depths what the eyes could not see.

Saint Theophylact also says that the nets signify the Gospel. Its words are humble and easy to understand, suited to the minds of the simple people who hear it.

Saint Cyril of Alexandria, in his commentary on the same Gospel, adds that the net is still being drawn, and Christ fills it. Through it the Lord calls to conversion those who are in the depths of the sea, that is, people tossed to and fro by the cares and turmoil of the world.

“Depart from Me, O Lord”

When he saw so many fish, Simon Peter did not rejoice like a fisherman who has made good his loss. “He fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). Saint Luke adds that astonishment had seized him and all who were with him.

A little earlier, Simon had called Christ “Master”. Now he calls Him “Lord”. Through the miracle it was revealed to Peter more clearly who sat in his boat, and who he himself was before Him. Saint Cyril of Alexandria says that Peter, brought back to the memory of his former sins, trembles and is afraid, and “as being impure ventures not to receive Him Who is pure”. Saint Cyril adds that this fear was praiseworthy. Saint Theophylact sees in Peter’s words the fruit of great reverence, by which the Apostle calls himself sinful and unworthy to be with Christ.

Saint Nikolai Velimirović says that the sense of one’s own sinfulness before God is a precious jewel for the soul. The Lord values it more than all the hymns of praise offered for His miracles out of mere habit. Without this sense, however many such hymns a man may raise, he gains nothing from them.

Christ answers Peter’s plea by doing the very opposite. He did not leave the boat, nor did He withdraw from him. He said to him: “Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men” (Luke 5:10). The man who had asked the Lord to depart from him is called never again to be parted from Him. Peter’s humility did not drive him away from Christ. It brought him nearer.

The same Apostle would later write in his first epistle: “God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5). These words can be read alongside that day in the boat, when Peter fell at the Lord’s knees and, instead of the distance he had asked for, received the call.

The prayer the Church gives to every believer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”, holds together the same two things Peter spoke in the boat: the name of the Lord and the confession of one’s own sin. Whoever says it from the heart calls upon Christ in the very moment he confesses himself unworthy of Him.

“They Forsook All, and Followed Him”

Saint Luke ends the account thus: “And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him” (Luke 5:11). Among the things left on the shore was the catch of that day.

Saint Theophylact marvels here at the way the Lord cares for the salvation of each person. The Lord did not remain in debt to the owner of the boat after teaching the crowds from it. He did him good twice over: He gave him a multitude of fish and made him His disciple. Each person, says the same Father, Christ draws to Himself through the things that are near to him and among which he grew up. He called the Magi by a star, and the fishermen by fish.

Saint John Chrysostom, commenting on the call of the same fishermen as Saint Matthew recounts it, bids us mark their faith and their obedience. They were in the midst of their daily work, and yet, when they heard the Lord’s voice, they did not delay to follow Him. The same Father shows that Matthew speaks of a second call, after the meeting recounted by the holy Evangelist John. And to his hearers he says that he does not ask all of them to leave their homes and friends. He asks them to leave their evil habits, remaining at home with their own.

Saint Cleopa links the obedience of the Apostles to the obedience of every Christian. In the same sermon he teaches that the one who obeys God, and the one who for God’s sake obeys the person guiding him on the path of salvation, receive the same reward. Saint Cleopa grounds this in the Lord’s word to His disciples, that whoever hears them hears Him (Luke 10:16). For this reason he urged the faithful to obey the Church and their spiritual fathers as Christ Himself.

Our Own Nights

Each of us knows nights like Simon’s. They are the labours begun in our own strength and by our own reckoning, from which we return with empty nets. Christ did not rebuke Simon for the night without a catch. He only asked him to let down the nets once more, at His word.

Saint Theophan the Recluse was a Russian bishop of the nineteenth century who spent the last years of his life in seclusion, shut in his cell in prayer. On the Gospel of this Sunday he sees in the miraculous catch an image of all labour done without God’s help, and of labour done with His help. As long as a man toils alone and wants to gain something by his own strength only, writes Saint Theophan, “everything slips from his hands”. When the Lord draws near to him, good things flow one after another.

For Saint Theophan, the Lord’s word, “without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5), is a law at work in every person. A branch that is not joined to the tree bears no fruit; it even withers and loses its life. In the same way, people who are not in living communion with the Lord cannot bring forth the fruits of righteousness that have worth for eternal life. The good that is sometimes seen in them is good only in appearance. It is like a wild apple, says Saint Theophan, red on the outside but sour to the taste. And at the end he adds that those who pay attention to themselves and to the ways of life know these truths by experience.

For a Christian, to work “at thy word” means to begin one’s work with prayer, to do it in obedience to the Church and to one’s spiritual father, and to entrust it to God, even when human reckoning no longer sees any point in it.

When God fills the nets, Peter shows us what we must do. He did not boast of the catch. He fell at the Lord’s knees and confessed his unworthiness. Whoever humbles himself in this way does not lose Christ. Like Peter, he hears the word that scatters every fear: “Fear not”.

May the Lord give us the grace to let down our nets at His word, and to follow Him, like the holy Apostles, leaving on the shore all that would hold us back on the way.

Sources

• Holy Scripture: Luke 5:1–11, 4:38–39 and 10:16; John 15:5; 1 Peter 5:5. Quotations from the King James Version.
• Saint Theophylact of Ohrid, Explanation of the Holy Gospel According to Luke; cited from the Romanian edition, Tâlcuirea Sfintei Evanghelii de la Luca, Editura Sophia, Bucharest, 2007, pp. 72–74.
• Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of Saint Luke, Sermon 12, translated by R. Payne Smith, Oxford, 1859.
• Saint Cleopa of Sihăstria, Sermon for the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost: On the Fruits of Obedience to God (Romanian text published on doxologia.ro).
• Saint Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on Tatian’s Diatessaron, 5.18.
• Saint Maximus of Turin, Sermon 110, 2.
• Saint John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Saint Matthew, Homily 14.
• Saint Nikolai Velimirović, Sermons; cited from the Romanian edition, Predici, Editura Ileana, Bucharest, 2006.
• Saint Theophan the Recluse, Thoughts for Each Day of the Year, Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Russian original: Мысли на каждый день года по церковным чтениям из Слова Божия).