The Miraculous Draught of Fishes and the Healing of a Leper

Continuing with Fouard's Life of Christ:

III: The Miraculous Draught of Fishes and the Healing of a Leper.

Luke iv. 44, v. 1-16; Mark I. 39-45; Matt. iv. 23-25, viii. 1-4.

On going out of Capharnaum, Jesus followed the borders of the lake and striking out toward the north, He stopped again at Bethsaïda, the village-home of His first disciples.

So the sons of Jonas and of Zebedee once more launched their little barks, and were out fishing all night long; for they were poor, and the necessity of getting something wherewith to buy bread for the morrow forced them back to their old occupation.  But it was all a useless toil dredging and hauling over the sea; until finally the sun rose, and the morning heats put an end to their hopes.  They had taken nothing, even during the hours most favourable for their work.

Greatly discouraged, they returned to the shore just as Jesus was coming down thither; there were glad crowds surrounding Him, eager to catch His words.  But though they pressed closely about Him, He straight way espied the two boats, and His disciples, who, having landed upon the beach, were washing their nets.  At once He went on board of Simon's boat, and desired Him to draw a little away from the land; then, seated in this first Chair of Peter, He began to instruct the people.

But His longing to spread their Good News did not prevent His feeling a keen sympathy for the useless and tedious toils and disappointment of the fishers; so when He had ceased speaking to the people, He said to Simon, "Push out into the deeper water;" and to His companions, "Cast over your nets for the fish."

"Master," Simon responded, we have laboured all the night without taking anything, but at Your word I will cast the net."

Depart from me, O Lord," "for I am a sinful man." J-J Tissot.

They dropped it over the side, and thereupon drew up such a great quantity of fishes that the cords were breaking.  As they were separated too far from the others to be heard in the neighbouring bark, they made signals for their companions to come to their aid.  When these were come, the draught of fishes filled the two boats to such a degree that they were almost submerged.

Seeing this, Simon Peter threw himself at the feet of Christ: " Depart from me, O Lord," "for I am a sinful man."

By this miracle Jesus revealed Himself as Lord and Master over Nature and her resources.  And so Peter only yielded to a feeling of terror which is common to all Jews, since they believed that to see God was to die; the same dread fell also upon those who were with him, and on the sons of Zebedee.

Jesus reassured them, one and all, saying, "Be not afraid!  Hereafter you shall be fishers of men."

It was the second time the Saviour has spoken these words to the disciples, and He showed them, by the miraculous draught of fishes, how fruitful the power which He would confer upon their souls was to be.  This prodigy was therefore a figure of their Ministry; thus they were to come out from the plain of Genesareth to launch upon the stormy sea of events, to live in labour and trouble without ceasing, tossed about upon waves more restless than those of their little lake.  Yet if their duties, hitherto so peaceful, were henceforth to be fraught with trials, by just recompense there were the most glorious rewards assured to them; they were to exchange their rude trade for a celestial Mission; instead of the rough meshes of their old torn and mended nets, they were to have the lovely snare of the Gospel, "which kills not that which is taken in it, but protects it, and brings up to the sweet light of Heaven that which it has rescued from the depths of the abyss." Had the fishermen of Bethsaïda any such full comprehension of this symbol of which He made use?  We think not.  God, however, let them catch some glimmerings of the light; for their fright gave place to confidence.  They no longer prayed to the Lord to depart, but rowed their boats back to the shore, and threw everything aside, once for all, to go and follow Him.

Surrounded by these companions, Jesus traversed all Galilee, "teaching in the synagogues, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all the ill and infirm among the people." The very poorest villages, even those which had no synagogues, were not forgotten.  The Lord bore to all the Good Tidings; not waiting, like John the Baptist, for them to come to Him, but seeking out such as He could save.  The days of the Divine Master among these little hamlets were passed much like that Sabbath-day at Capharnaum; the places and the times were different, but always with the same patience and ever-wearying tenderness He lavished His good deeds upon all; with inexhaustible compassion cured their souls and bodies, healed every malady, and departing, left behind Him, as it were, the perfume of His Presence.

Of that first mission in Galilee we know but one single event.  Jesus had come to a town whose name is not known, when a man, running toward Him, threw himself at His feet, and implored His mercy.  The unfortunate well merited pity; leprosy had consumed his whole body.  The scourge when it reaches this stage becomes an object of horror, for the corruption of death has actually taken possession of a living body.  No plague was dreaded more by the Jews; they called it the Finger, or the Handwriting, of God; and in its ravages they saw the counterpart of that scene which fastens upon the soul and poisons the very wellsprings of life within it.  The funereal tokens always surrounding lepers still further fortified them in this feeling.  Banished from home, and not allowed to enter beyond the city gates, their garments tattered and torn to shreds like those of mourners, their heads shaven, and their lips covered with a veil, thus they were nothing more to the eyes of their fellow-citizens than living, moving sepulchres, obliged at every approach of man to send forth that lugubrious cry,

"If You will, You can heal me!" J-J Tissot.

" Unclean!  Unclean!"

Although the leper of the Gospel had infringed this law by overstepping the limits of the city's enclosure, his misery was so piteous that at the first glance Jesus thought of nothing except to assuage it.

"Lord," cried the wretched creature, "if You will, You can heal me!"

Immediately the Master stretched out His hand, laid it upon his body with its repulsive sores.

"I will," He said; "be thou healed."

And on the instant the leprosy disappeared.  It was because of the sufferer's faith that Jesus granted him so prompt a hearing, but it was also owing to his sad condition.  No leper ever invoked His aid without being heard; the Lord always had compassion upon their desolate lives, and at once purified them.

However, after having yielded to the first movement of pity, Jesus now saw in this man only a law breaker.  He reproached him severely, and bade him go out of the city which he had presumed to enter unsanctioned.

"Be careful," He said, "to tell no one of this; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer in return for your cure that which Moses has ordained, in order that it may be a testimony unto them."

By this command Jesus not only testified His respect for the legal ordinances; He wished also to cover over in silence an act which revealed in Him the Supreme a Law giver, able to touch the most dreaded and most noxious impurities without being contaminated, and thus working a cure reserved to the power of God alone.  A marvel so manifestly divine could not fail to excite unbounded hopes in the multitudes, hopes which would be likely to interfere with the Saviour's Mission.  Therefore He spared neither commands more threats in order to ensure the silence of the man whom He had just healed.  But these precautions were all thwarted by the indocility of the leper, who, remembering nothing but his debt of gratitude, went forth and published the news on every hand.

What's the Saviour wished to prevent now occurred; the excitement among the people was so intense, their enthusiasm was so overpowering, that He could not enter publicly into a town any longer, but was compelled to remain outside the cities, in the wilderness.

Thither they flocked from all parts, and there Jesus pursuied His ministry in perfect freedom; for at such a distance from the crowded centres He had not much cause for anxiety lest His hearers’ ardor should call down upon His labours the vengeance of Herod.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam