Men, who recognise no other law than that of the flesh, may be as deaf and as indifferent, as they please, to the teachings of positive revelation,-but mere matter will go on ever condemning their materialism; nature, which they pretend to acknowledge as their only authority, will continue to preach the supernatural with her thousand mouths, and will preach it in every nook of the earth; and creation, disturbed though it be, and turned astray by the Fall of Adam, will still keep proclaiming, all the louder because it is in suffering,-that the fallen king, whom it was intended to serve, has a destiny far beyond all finite things. O ye mysterious sufferings of creatures, which the Apostle here calls your groanings, may we not name you, as one of the poets did, and speak of you as the tears of things ?1 Truly, you are like the soul of music of this land of trial; we have but to listen your sweet plaintive sounds, and let you speak your eloquence, and you lead us to Him who is the source of all beauty and love. The pagan world heard your voice; but its philosophers would have it that you meant pantheism!-The Holy Ghost had not yet begun his reign. He alone could explain to us the strange language of nature, and her vehement aspirations, all of which had been put into her by himself. All is now made clear to us: the Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole earth; the divine Witness who giveth us assurance that we are the sons of God,3 has carried his precious testimony to the furthest limits of creation, for all creation thrills with expectancy, impatient to see the coming of that glorious day which is to be the revelation of the glory that belongs to these sons of God. It is on their account that they, too, have had, to suffer; together with them they shall be set free, and shall share in the brightness of their coronation-day. St. John Chrysostom compares 1 Virg. Æn. I. 462. VOL. XI. 2 Wisd. i. 7. Rom. vii. 16. the the earth to the nurse who has brought up "king's son; when he succeeds to his father's king"dom, she, too, is made all the better off. "It is much the same with all men ;—when a son of "theirs is to appear in the splendour of some new "dignity, they let his very servants wear richer suits. "So will God vest in incorruption every creature, "when the day of the deliverance and glory of his "children shall come.' ויי The Gradual tells us how the prayers of Christians, though they are far from being free from sin, ascend up to God. They feel that they are unworthy of his assistance, and yet, for his own glory's sake, they sue him to have compassion on them. Poor though they be, they are his soldiers; their cause is His. The Alleluia-Verse shows us the Church, though here below she be poor and persecuted, sending up her prayer of confidence to the throne of her Spouse, the most just Judge. GRADUAL. Propitius esto, Domine, peccatis nostris, nequando dicant gentes: ubi est Deus eorum ? V. Adjuva nos, Deus salutaris noster: et propter honorem nominis tui, Domine, libera nos. Alleluia, alleluia. V. Deus, qui sedes super thronum, et judicas æquitatem, esto refugium pauperum in tribulatione.Allefuia. Be merciful, O Lord, to our offences, that the Gentiles may never say: Where now is their God? V. Help us, O Lord, our Saviour, and, for the honour of thy name, deliver us, O Lord. Alleluia, alleluia. V. O God, who sittest on thy throne, and judgest justly, be a refuge to the poor in distress. Alleluia. 'In Ep. ad Rom. Hom. xiv. 5. GOSPEL. Sequel of the Holy Gospel according to Luke. Ch. v. At that time, it came to pass, that when the multitude pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Genesareth. And he saw two ships standing by the lake; but the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets. And going up into one of the ships that was Simon's, he desired him to draw back a little from the land. And sitting he taught the multitudes out of the ship. Now when he had ceased to speak, he said to Simon : Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon, answering, said to him: Master, we have laboured all the night, and have taken nothing; but at thy word, I will let down the net. And when they had done this, they enclosed a very great multitude of fishes, and their net broke. And they beckoned to their partners that were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came and filled both the ships, so that they were almost sinking. Which when Simon Peter saw, he fell down at Jesus's knees, saying: Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was wholly astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which Sequentia sancti Evangelii secundum Lucam. Cap. v. In illo tempore: Cum turbæ irruerent in Jesum, ut audirent verbum Dei, et ipse stabat secus stagnum Genezareth. Et vidit duas naves stantes secus stag. num: piscatores autem descenderant, et lavabant retia. Ascendens autem unam navim,quæ eratSimonis, rogavit eum a terra reducere pusillum. Et sedens, docebat de navicula turbas. Ut cessavit autem loqui, dixit ad Simonem Duc in altum, et laxate retia vestra in capturam. Et respondens Simon, dixit illi: Præceptor, per totam noctem laborantes, nihil cepimus in verbo autem tuo laxabo rete. Et cum hoc fecissent, concluserunt piscium multitudinem copiosam; rumpebatur autem rete eorum. Et annuerunt sociis, qui erant in alia navi, ut venirent, et adjuvarent eos. Et venerunt, et impleverunt ambas naviculas, ita ut pene merge rentur. Quod cum viderent Simon Petrus, procidit ad genua Jesu, dicens: Exi a me, quia homo peccator sum, Domine. Stupor enim circumdederat eum, et omnes qui cum illo erant, in captura piscium quam ceperant : similiter autem Ja cobum et Johannem, filios Zebedæi, qui erant socii Simonis. Et ait ad Simonem Jesus: Noli timere: ex hoc jam homines eris capiens. Et subductis ad terram navibus, relictis omnibus secuti sunt eum. they had taken. And so were also James and John the sons of Zebedee, who were Simon's partners. And Jesus saith to Simon Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And having brought their ships to land, leaving all things they followed him. 1 The prophecy and promise made by Jesus to Simon the son of John is now fulfilled. We were in amazement, on the day when the Holy Ghost came down, at the success which attended Peter's first fishing for men; he cast in his nets, and it was the choicest of the sons of Israel that he took, and offered them to the Lord Jesus. But the bark of Peter was not to be long confined within Jewish waters. Insignificant as it seems to human views, the ship is now sailing on the high seas; it rides on the deep waters, which are, so St. John tells us, peoples and nations. The boisterous wind, the surging billows, the storm, no longer terrifies the boat-man of Lake Tiberias; for he knows that he has on board Him who is the Master of the waves, Him, that is, who has given the deep as a garment to clothe the earth. Endued with power from on high,3 Peter has cast his net, the apostolic preaching, all over the great Ocean; for it is large as is the world, and is to bring the sons of the great fish, the divine ICTHUS,5 to the eternal shore. Grand indeed is the work assigned to Peter. Though fellow-labourers have been joined to him in his divine enterprise, yet does he preside over them all as their undisputed head, as master of the ship where Jesus commands in person and directs all the operations to be done for the world's salvation. Our to-day's Gospel very opportunely prepares us for and 5 Inscript. Augustod. Apoc. xvii. 15. 2 Ps. ciii. 6. St. Luke, xxiv. 49. 4 Titul. S. Abercii. sums up the teachings included in the Feast of the Prince of the Apostles, which always comes close on the fourth Sunday after Pentecost. For that very reason, we leave for the Feast the detailed enumeration of the glories inherent in the Vicar of Christ; and limit ourselves, for the present, to the consideration of the other mysteries contained in the text before us. The Evangelists have left us the account of two miraculous fishings made by the Apostles in presence of their divine Lord :-one of these is related by St. Luke, and the Church proposes it to our considerations for this Sunday; the other, with its exquisite symbolism, was put before us by the Beloved Disciple, on Easter Wednesday. The former of these, which took place whilst our Lord was still in the days of his mortal life, merely describes that the net was cast into the water just as it served the fishermen's purpose; that it broke with the multitude of the draught, but no notice is taken, by the Evangelist, as to either the number or kind of the fish; in the second, it is our Risen Lord who tells the fishermen, his disciples, that it is to be on the right side of their boat that the net must be let down; it catches, and without breaking, a hundred-and-fifty great fishes; these are brought to the shore where Jesus was waiting for them, that he might join them with the mysterious bread and fish that he himself had already got ready for his labourers.1 The Fathers are unanimous in the interpretation of these two fishings, . -they represent the Church; first of all, the Church as she now is, and next, as she is to be in eternity. As she now is, the Church is the multitude, without distinction between good and bad; but afterwards, that is, after the resurrection, the good alone will compose the Church, and their number will be for ever fixed. The kingdom of heaven, says our Lord, 'St. John, xxi. 1-13. |