Saint Matthew - Chapter 4
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| Calling Peter and Andrew. J-J Tissot |
And Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea (for they were fishers).
[19] et ait illis : Venite post me, et faciam vos fieri piscatores hominum.
And he saith to them: Come ye after me, and I will make you to be fishers of men.
[20] At illi continuo relictis retibus secuti sunt eum.
And they immediately leaving their nets, followed him.
Notes (Cornelius A Lapide)
[18] Ambulans autem Jesus juxta mare Galilaeae, vidit duos fratres, Simonem, qui vocatur Petrus, et Andream fratrem ejus, mittentes rete in mare ( erant enim piscatores),And Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea (for they were fishers).
Jesus walking by the sea, &c. It is not the first vocation of Peter and Andrew which is here recorded. This is related by S. John (1:36), among the events of the first year of Christ’s ministry. The second vocation of Peter and Andrew was after the Baptist’s imprisonment, when they surrendered themselves at Christ’s call to become His disciples; when they constantly cleave to Him, and never return to their former occupations. This second calling of these Apostles is related both by Matthew and Luke; by the former, compendiously; whilst S. Luke, after his wont, narrates the particulars of the history more at length. So S. Chrysostom.
Walking, not by chance, not merely for recreation, but that He might call to Him Peter and Andrew, James and John. Let Christians, especially priests and religious, strive to imitate Christ, and do nothing aimlessly, but seek fruit in all things.
By the sea of Galilee. Capernaum, where Christ had chosen a house for receiving His disciples was near this lake.
Simon, this is from the Hebrew שמע soama, “hearing,” “obeying.” See what I have said on Gen. 29:33.
Andrew is a Greek name, which the Jews after the time of Alexander the Great took from the Greeks, together with such names as Jason, Lysimachus, Menelaus. (See 1 Mac. 4, &c.) Andrew means strong, brave. And such indeed S. Andrew was upon his cross.
Casting a net. We must supply from S. Luke, chap. 5, that Christ went up into Peter’s ship, and taught the multitudes from thence, that after that He bade Peter cast a net into the sea, which immediately caught a vast number of fishes, so that the net brake, that by this miracle Peter was converted, together with Andrew, James, and John, that then Christ said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men,” as S. Matthew here records.
[19] et ait illis : Venite post me, et faciam vos fieri piscatores hominum.
And he saith to them: Come ye after me, and I will make you to be fishers of men.
Fishers of men. For Christians are like fishes swimming in the waters of baptism.
“There are merchandise and nets and ropes:
Death the reward, virtue the prow, the keel is health above;
Faith the ropes, true godliness the mast,
The sail is hope, the oars are grace, the captain is true lave.”
This is the ship of Christ’s Church in which we sail to heaven. I have noticed nineteen analogies between fishes and men, upon Habakkuk 1:14, which if you please you may consult.
Hence Christ is called by the early Christians ΙΧΘΥΣ, a FISH, because its initial letters make this acrostic, Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς Θεοῦ Υἱός Σώτηρ, or Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Saviour; on which there is extant a verse of the Erythræan Sibyl in S. Augustine (Civ. Dei, 18. 23.) See Tertullian (de Bapt.), and Prosper (part, prœdict. 2. 39).
S. Luke says, “From henceforth thou shalt catch men,” Gr. ζωγρῶν, i.e. take them alive, catch them for life. S. Ambrose translates, “make them live.” As though Christ had said, “Fishermen take fishes for death, that they may kill them, but thou, O Peter, shalt catch men unto life, that they may begin a new life, and live unto God in holiness.”
Well does S. Augustine say (Tract. 7 in Joan.), Christ, wishing to break the nets of the proud, sought not the fisherman by means of the orator, but from the fisherman he gained the emperor. Great is Cyprian the orator, but first was Peter the fisherman. In this was fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah (16:16), “Behold, I will send many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish you.”
[20] At illi continuo relictis retibus secuti sunt eum.
And they immediately leaving their nets, followed him.
Leaving their nets. Under the term nets understand also ships, houses, occupation, servants, parents, relations, and all other things whatsoever, according to that saying of S. Peter to Christ, “Lo! we have left all things and followed thee.” When then we read that after Christ’s death the Apostles went a-fishing (John 21:3), we do not understand that they again betook themselves to their old vocation, but only did it to pass the time, and to divert their minds from the affliction which they were enduring at the loss of their Master.
Wisely does S. Bernard say to those who fear to follow God’s call to high and arduous things, “Why dost thou fear? Why dost thou hesitate? The Angel of great counsel calls thee. No one is wiser than He is; no one is stronger; no one is more faithful.”
Tropologically, the scholiast on S. Jerome says, “Let us leave the spiders’ nets which are the vanities of the world in which we are held.''
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| The Lake of Gennesaret, near Bethsaida. J-J Tissot |
This peculiar mode of fishing from the shore explains how it was that Jesus was able to speak to the future Apostles on the spot and tell them to follow Him, without having to call them from afar, and removes a certain amount of mystery of this scene, described with a brevity so touching.''
[Taken from The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by J. James Tissot, Sampson, Low, Marston, London, 1897]
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam
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