In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit, amen. Glory to Jesus Christ.
Today's gospel is taken from the fifth chapter
of the Gospel of St. Luke. You probably noticed
that during the summertime, after Pentecost,
we have the gospel readings from the Gospel of
Matthew, but then after the Feast of the Elevation
of the Holy Cross, we move into readings from
Luke. This is informally called the Lucan Jump
when we move into the Gospel readings from Luke.
This, of course, depends on the variableness
of our Orthodox Byzantine lectionary on when
Easter is. Be that as it may, this gospel, the
miraculous catch of fish, occurs at the very
beginning of Jesus' public ministry. This miraculous
catch of fish, this miracle, begins more or less
Jesus' public ministry in the three what are
called synoptic gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
And then a similar or parallel event occurs at
the end of St. John's Gospel, but we'll get to
that in a moment or two. This is the beginning
of Jesus' ministry. It's the calling of Simon
and Andrew. Simon, of course, his name is changed
to Peter by our Lord. But Simon and Andrew and
then James and John, their partners, sons of
Zebedee, they're all fishermen. Most of Jesus'
disciples were fishermen. What does St. Luke's
narration of this miracle is the most detailed
compared to Mark and Matthew. because it has
a very significant element in there. It is the
reaction of St. Peter. Notice what Peter does,
and this is only, again, in Luke's Gospel. He
says, depart from me, for I am a sinful man.
That has always impressed me, because it shows
the recognition of sinfulness in the presence
of holiness. Depart from me, for I am a sinful
man. We have the same sentiment oftentimes in
our services, especially I'd call your attention
to the prayer before Holy Communion. After we
say, I believe, O Lord, and I confess that thou
art truly the Christ, the Son of the living God,
who didst come into the world to save sinners,
of whom I am the first. The post -resurrectional
miraculous catch of fish after the resurrection
occurs only in St. John's Gospel. And here, Peter
figures prominently also in this miracle. This
is, again, the miracle after Jesus' resurrection.
and it contains a very curious note. St. John
tells us that all of these were miraculous catches
of fish, and they all toiled all night long in
Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and here they toiled.
They didn't catch anything either. So Jesus tells
them, throw the net on the other side of the
boat. which of course is what they do, and they
bring in a miraculous catch of fish. And then,
curiously, I don't know if there's any significance
here, but this net doesn't break. Some of the
fathers see that there's a significance in that.
But the fish are so many in the first narration
of the first miracle that the nets start to break.
Well, since I brought that up, I'll tell you
what other interpretations is. that this shows
that, well, first let me tell you the number
of fish that they caught. 153 fish. That has
puzzled Christians for 1 ,900 years. Why are
there 153 fish? Those of you that are successful
in fishing, you put your fish on the stringer,
you probably don't even count them up, but here
they say 153 fish. Now this, of course, has produced
endless speculation, especially in numerology.
50 times 3 plus 3, all that kind of stuff. But
I don't think that really isn't so much to the
point. But there is one curious element in there.
And St. Jerome remarks that at that time biologists
thought that there were 153 species of fish in
the world. Now we know that depending on how
you count species of fish nowadays, there are
between, my matushka and I looked this up, there
are between, at her prompting. There are between
20 and 30 ,000 species of fish. But I am inclined
to St. Jerome's interpretation of 153 fish, symbolizing
every single fish that exists. And this shows
that the gospel message that the apostles are
to preach should be preached in all the world.
And the gospel and the church are for all men
and women, all races of all times. Peter again.
He recognized the holiness of Jesus in Luke's
gospel. And then you know what Peter did at...
our Lord's passion and what he would put on trial.
He came and he denied Jesus three times in the
presence even of a teenage maid. And he began
to swear, I don't know that man. And so that
he did this three times. And at the gospel at
the end of the miraculous catch of fish, at the
end of St. John's gospel, That provides the opportunity
for Jesus to say to him, Peter, do you love me?
Ask him that three times, corresponding to the
three denials. And then feed my lambs, feed my
fish. The first miraculous catch of fish that
we read, Jesus says, You will become fishers
of men. You will catch men. And then this is
fulfilled again in the universal call with these
153 fish. St. John might tell me in the kingdom
of heaven, they just had 153 fish. There's no
significance to it. But I think it's curious
to see what possibilities there might be. But
for us, What does this all mean to us? Jesus
says you will catch, be fishers of men. This
is discipleship, following Jesus. These three,
the miraculous catch of fish at the beginning
of the three Gospels, they notice the evangelist
said they left everything, they left their nets
and followed him. discipleship, like Peter, Andrew,
James, and John, and all the disciples. This
is our inspiration to renew our discipleship
to Jesus Christ. There's no such thing, or there
should be no such thing, as a part -time Christian.
Whoever here is a part -time Christian, raise
your hand. Don't anybody raise your hand. We're
all expected to be full -time Christians. We
don't live up to it all the time, but that is
the expectation that Jesus has of each and every
one of us, myself and all of you. So this should
be our... thought for the day, so to speak. And
we ask through the intercession of those fishermen
that are called today, Peter, James, and John,
and Andrew, to give us their prayers to make
us, like them, renewed, full -time disciples
of Jesus Christ. Amen.