9781644135945

The Light of the World
wills, which shrink from suffering and renunciation. Here we renew the previous renunciation
we made at the time of our baptism (Secreta).
Through our participation in the suffering and death of Christ, which is made possible to
us through our offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we also enter into the glory of the
new life of which the Epistle speaks, the life of the children of God. Participation in the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass signifies our sharing not only in the suffering and death of Christ, but also
in His resurrection. Offering ourselves with Christ, we, like the substance of the bread and wine,
will undergo a change in spirit and life. That supernatural life which was planted in our souls in
baptism will be deepened and inspired. The Spirit of the Son of God descends into our soul and
accomplishes with irresistible power the final glorification and redemption of body and soul.
This sanctification, however, Christ accomplishes only in the bark of Peter, that is, in His holy
Church, in which through Peter and his successors He appears and teaches. He accomplishes it in
all those who, like the fishes of today’s Gospel, are caught in the net of Peter which was cast out at
the command of the Lord. Only where Christ is, is there light, salvation, and redemption; that is,
in the bark of Peter, the Church. In her custody is placed the sacrifice from which all redemption
and grace flow. Blessed be the day that brought us to Christ in baptism and made us members
of His Church. “The Lord is my firmament, and my refuge, and my deliverer” (Communion).
Meditation
Today we see two small boats moored at the bank of the Lake of Genesareth. The fishermen
have left them and are washing their nets. Christ enters one of these boats, the one belonging
to Peter. Peter stands by Him in the boat and pushes it off a short distance from the shore. Jesus
begins to instruct the people, and after He has finished speaking to them, He works the miracle
of the draught of fishes. Peter and his companions obey the command of Christ and catch such
a multitude of fish that their nets threaten to break. Then Christ appoints Peter to be a fisher of
men. “Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men.”
“And when they had done this, they enclosed a very great multitude of fishes; and their net
broke” (Gospel). What an unexpected catch! For the liturgy this draught of fish is a symbol and
figure: the fish which Peter caught at the command of the Lord are the souls of the faithful. “We
fishes have been born [by baptism] in the water” (Tertullian). Through Peter, and through the
Church founded upon him, we have been drawn by baptism out of the sea of sin and perdition,
and we have found Christ and salvation. Christ’s command to Peter still applies: “Let down
your nets.” It is carried out in the preaching of the word of God, in the celebration of Mass,
and in the administration of the holy sacraments. Peter and His Church and her priests may
often complain, “Master, we have labored all the night and have taken nothing.” But the Lord
insists on His command, “Let down your nets”; and Peter and His Church and her priests, who
experience so many reversals and misfortunes, take up the work anew, — “at Thy word” — in
blind faith, in humble obedience to His word, even though human prudence can see no chance
of success. Peter, the Church, and her priests exert themselves to the utmost, but the results
accomplished depend not on their efforts, but solely and entirely on His grace. “But at Thy
word I will let down the net.” It often appears as though the Lord wished to do all the work by
Himself and put His Church and His priests to shame. He humbles them that He may later
446