By St. Cyril of Alexandria
(Sermons from the Gospel of Luke: Excerpts)
5:2. And He saw two ships standing by the lake, but the fishermen were gone out of them, and, were washing their nets.
Let us admire the skillfulness of the method employed in making them a prey who were to make prey of the whole earth; even the holy Apostles, who, though themselves well skilled in fishing, yet fell into Christ's meshes, that they also, letting down the drag-net of the Apostolic preachings, might gather unto Him the inhabitants of the whole world. For verily He somewhere said by one of the holy prophets, "Behold I send many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall catch them as fish: and afterwards I will send many hunters, and they shall hunt them as game." By the fishers He means the holy Apostles; and by the hunters, those who successively became the rulers and teachers of the holy churches. And observe, I pray, that He not only preaches, but also displays signs, giving thereby pledges of His power, and confirming His words by the display of miracles: for after He had sufficiently conversed with the multitudes, He returns to His usual mighty works, and by means of their pursuits as fishers catches the disciples as fish: that men may know that His will is almighty, and that the creation ministers to His most godlike commands.
5:4. And when He ceased speaking, He said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep.
As He had now taught them sufficiently, and it was fitting also to
add some divine work to His words for the benefit of the spectators, He
bade Simon and his companions push off a little from the land, and let
down the net for a drought. But they replied, that they had been
labouring the whole night, and had caught nothing: in the name, however,
of Christ, they let down the net, and immediately it was full of fish;
in order that by a visible fact, and by a type and representation,
miraculously enacted, they might be fully convinced that their labor
would not be unrewarded, nor the zeal fruitless which
|74 they displayed in
spreading out the net of the Gospel teaching; for that most certainly
they should catch within it the shoals of the heathen. But observe this,
that neither Simon nor his companions could draw the net to land; and
therefore, being speechless from fright and astonishment:----for their
wonder had made them mute:----they beckoned, it says, to their partners,
those, that is, who shared their labours in fishing, to come and help
them in securing their prey. For many have taken part with the holy
Apostles in their labors, and still do so, especially such as search
into the meaning of what is written in the holy Gospels; and others
besides them, even the pastors and teachers and rulers of the people,
who are skilled in the doctrines of truth. For still is the net drawn,
while Christ fills it, and summons unto conversion those in the depths
of the sea, according to the Scripture phrase; those, that is to say,
who live in the surge and waves of worldly things.
5:8. And when Simon Peter saw it.
For this reason also Peter, carried back to the memory of his former
sins, trembles and is afraid, and as being impure ventures not to
receive Him Who is pure: and his fear was laudable: for he had been
taught by the law to distinguish between the holy and the profane.