In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Like even in the catacombs, you'll find an ancient symbol of the church is a ship or a boat with a net spread over it.
Because, as we see in the Gospel today, this fishing trip of Peter and the apostles was not just a fishing trip of meeting their material needs.
St. Augustine, in his commentary on the Gospel of John, points to this reading and says that it has,
a greater significance than just the fact that Peter and the apostles wanted to go out and fish to get some food to eat.
And some have said that this Gospel, you know, is that Peter and the apostles, after our Lord's resurrection,
they were kind of lost as to what to do, so they went out to, they were returning back to their old trade.
And St. Augustine says, no, that's not the case.
Because our Lord had appeared to them already.
It says this is the third time that our Lord appeared to him after his resurrection.
So they weren't going fishing because they were, you might say, distressed, or that they were without anything to do.
That they were going fishing because, as St. Augustine says, that they were able to supply their needs.
And he says, you know, that the Gospel, or the Scriptures say that he who preaches the Gospel should make his living by the Gospel.
But he says that that's a special.
That's a special privilege given to those who preach the Gospel.
But that doesn't mean that they have to always make use of that.
Even St. Paul, when he was out preaching and ministering to the different people,
made his living as a tent maker so that he wouldn't be, as he said, a burden to the people.
So they wouldn't be taxed by his presence.
So he earned his own keep, you might say, while he was preaching.
And so St. Augustine says this is what Peter and the apostles were doing.
They, you know, the church was just in its beginnings,
and so they probably were needing some help and providence.
And so they went fishing to help bring in a catch of fish.
And since they were fishermen, they knew how to do this,
and they were going to use their own, you might say, talent and skills to help provide for their needs.
But our Lord uses this fishing trip to point to a far more important,
aspect of their being not just fishers, but now to become fishers of men.
And St. Augustine points to an earlier time, you know,
when our Lord went and got into the boat of Peter,
and he said, you know, go out into the deep and cast out your nets.
And that first time, our Lord was in the boat.
But now he's standing on the shore.
And St. Peter says that,
St. Augustine says that that first fishing trip was the church out in the world
doing its task of bringing in the souls to be saved.
And so our Lord didn't specify.
He just said, throw out your nets.
And they brought in a big catch.
And at that time, our Lord made the analogy that, you know,
that a fisherman has to go through his nets and throw out what is good,
or keep what is good and throw out what is bad.
This time, our Lord tells his apostles, standing on the shore,
St. Augustine says,
that our Lord is already on the shore.
That, you know, our life is like the church traveling through history
is like a boat on the ocean,
traveling to its final destination, which is the shore.
And he says, here, you know, our Lord is standing on the shore,
symbol of he's already risen from the dead,
and that this is going to be at the end of the world.
And that our Lord tells Peter, out on the water, fishing,
he says,
throw out your nets on the right side of the ship.
The right side symbolizing those who are to be saved.
As you know, the just are on the right.
And so Peter and the apostles throw out their nets on the right,
obedient to this man on the shore whom they do not yet recognize.
And they bring in a great number of fish.
Such a huge catch, it says.
St. Augustine says this is symbolized that the fact that the church,
at the end of the world,
will, you might say, bring all those souls that it has in its nets to our Lord,
that it has saved through its ministry,
through its work throughout history.
And St. Augustine also points to the significance of the number of 153.
He says that our Lord came to not abolish the law,
but to fulfill the law.
And he says, what number do you think of when you think of the law?
He says, well, you think of the number,
the number 10 for the Ten Commandments.
He says, but the law by itself does not have what it needs.
The law, you know, it says, St. Paul says, the law only pointed out sin.
But he says, our Lord came to bring spirit to the letter, spirit to the law.
And he says, what do you think of when you think of spirit?
He says, you think of the number seven.
And so he thinks, you would think of the Holy Spirit, he says,
who is the sevenfold gifts of salvation.
And so he says, when you take the number 10 and you add to it seven,
you get 17.
And St. Augustine then points out a very interesting aspect.
He says, if you add all the integers, all the numbers together,
that make up the number 17.
You'd go one plus two equals three, three plus three equals six.
And then you keep adding all those one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
all the way up to 17.
You add them all together and you get 137.
153.
Symbolizing that the church's work of putting, you know,
I'd say the spirit and the law put together and working its fullness
throughout history equals the number 153.
And he says, what is 153 but three times 50 plus three?
Three, he says, is the Trinity.
50 is made up of seven times seven, which is the Holy Spirit again,
plus one, which he says,
symbolizes he who is the fullness of those seven gifts,
the Holy Spirit himself.
And so he says, this number symbolizes the perfection of,
you might say, of the church's work throughout history in saving souls.
And its work of salvation as it travels through this tempestuous seas of this world,
the church is out throwing its nets, trying to bring in the fish.
And at the end of the world, you know, our Lord is going to, you know,
the church will haul in its catch.
And then our Lord will throw out the good, throw out the bad and keep what is good.
And so St. Augustine points to this aspect of this importance of this gospel.
It has, you might say, has a parable to it or an aspect that points to just the fact
they weren't just going out fishing.
There was an importance to the, to the number.
He says, that doesn't mean there's only going to be 153 people saved.
He says, that means it's a great number that it's, as it says,
in the second reading of St. John in his book of Revelation says,
I saw there were countless in number and they cried out in a loud voice,
worthy is the lamb that was slain.
So that we see that this great catch that the church will bring in at the end of the world
will be brought to our Lord who's standing on the shore.
The other aspect that we must look to at this gospel is the threefold confession of Peter.
Our Lord gives Peter the opportunity to make up for his threefold denial
that he did on Holy Thursday.
St. Augustine says that a tongue which was, which had denied out of fear of death
shouldn't, shouldn't not have, that his tongue should be given the opportunity,
you might say, to make even greater confession of love for God.
So our Lord asked Peter, do you love me three times?
And he says, you know, yes, Lord, I love you.
And our Lord says, feed my sheep.
And then he says on the second time, tend my sheep, tend my lambs.
We are reminded here that Peter is, as Vatican Council 1 says,
this gospel here is John's way of reaffirming what Matthew reaffirms,
that, you know, Peter, you are Peter, upon this rock I will build my church.
St. John has this Peter receiving his headship of the church
in his threefold confession of love.
Feed my sheep, tend my sheep, tend my lambs.
It's the same thing to John as you are rock and upon this rock I will build my church.
And so Peter confesses and you might say he, he, he who was so,
so bold as to proclaim I will die for you, Lord.
As he finally gets to the second or the third time when our Lord says, do you love me?
He says, Peter's not so bold as to say, you know, he says, well, Lord, you know everything.
He's humbled by that.
And he knows that truly our Lord knows his heart.
And he doesn't, is not so bold as to say, you know, well, of course I, he says, you, Lord, you know everything.
You know that I love you.
And then our Lord says to him,
tend, tend my lambs.
Peter, being the head of the church, has been given this, this task of feeding Christ's sheep and tending his lambs.
We must always pray for our bishops that they too will realize that it's not their sheep they are tending, but Christ's.
And that that should make them realize that they're not supposed to be necessarily popular.
With their sheep, because they're not theirs to begin with.
That their first and foremost important task that they should keep in mind is that these sheep have been given to their care and that they are to tend them for Christ.
They're not to be hired hands.
A hired hand will run away when there's trouble.
But a true shepherd, like Christ, will stand in the breach and will defend the flock from its enemies.
And will do what it is, what is necessary.
To see that the sheep are guided and headed in the right direction.
They will not be cowardly.
They will not be more concerned about having their sheep like them.
Instead, tell them what they need to hear.
And do that which is sometimes maybe difficult.
And even have to excommunicate one of them for the sake of their salvation.
That is true tending of sheep.
It's not a popularity poll.
Our Lord didn't say to Peter, you know,
He didn't say, fleece my sheep.
He said, feed them.
And He didn't say, you know,
Oh, you're going to have a good time.
Everybody will come and take care of you.
No, our Lord then prophesied to him that,
Peter, because you are following me,
Because you have confessed your threefold love for me,
You will also be taken and you will,
You will suffer a death like mine.
When he says to him,
Amen, amen, I say to you,
When you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted.
But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands,
And someone else will dress you,
And lead you where you do not want to go.
He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.
And when he had said this, he said to him,
Follow me.
Peter did this.
Peter who, you know, we look to Peter, and we see,
Peter who, you know, we look to Peter, and we see,
Peter who, you know, we look to Peter, and we see,
He who denied our Lord at the end of his life,
Was willing to die for him.
And he didn't think he was worthy to die upright,
So he asked if he would be crucified upside down.
We see that this same Peter,
That the resurrection was not just something that was in his,
You know, it wasn't an imaginary thing.
He did witness our Lord risen from the dead.
So much so that he's so bold in the first reading that we hear,
That he stands up to the Pharisees in the Sanhedrin,
That he stands up to the Pharisees in the Sanhedrin,
Whereas he denied our Lord on that Holy Thursday,
Because he didn't want to be known as one of his followers.
He says with boldness,
Better for us to obey God than men.
And then he goes on to say to them,
That you killed this Jesus.
Though you killed him by hanging him on a tree,
God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior,
To grant Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins.
The church, like Peter,
Has this same task before it.
It's better for the church to obey God than men.
Even if the world today tells us,
Oh, you know, it's hate, they want to pass a crime,
You know, it's a crime to speak the gospel,
To tell someone that they're not living the truth.
You know, even if they should put us in jail,
The church has to boldly say,
Better for us to obey God than men.
Better for us to be faithful to Christ,
And the mandate he's given to us,
To go out into the ocean and catch the fish,
To bring in souls for salvation,
Than to please someone who doesn't want to hear the truth.
This is something that we must always keep in mind
As we are living our Catholic faith.
You know, we're not going to be necessarily popular,
And people may not want to hear what you have to say.
But that doesn't mean that we should shut up.
It means that as our Lord said to his apostles,
What you hear in secret, shout it from the rooftops.
It means that we must be bold to proclaim the truth.
Bold as Peter was when he was,
You know, when they brought him before the Sanhedrin,
And threatened him, you know, to whip him,
He went out rejoicing that he was able to suffer for Christ.
That God's grace transformed Peter,
And God's grace has and can transform us.
To be bold in living our faith.
That we must not necessarily use words,
But we must, at times we must use words.
But most importantly, we must give witness to Christ
By our actions, by our deeds, of living the truth.
We have so many Catholics today
Who are not preaching the gospel because they're not living the truth.
They're not living their Catholic faith,
Especially in the public square.
And so let us today not be hired hands,
Not be cowards,
In the face of persecution or opposition,
But boldly live the gospel.
To preach the gospel in charity,
But yet with courage.
And be willing to say those things
Which people don't want to hear,
And be willing to live the truth
When people would rather want to live a lie,
And want you to somehow coddle their conscience
And say, oh, it's okay that your sin is good,
And it's not.
We must have that courage,
As Peter and the apostles did.
And it's because of that courage
That they went out to all the world
And converted a large portion of the world
In their day to the faith.
We too have that same task before us.
There's only probably a billion Catholics in the world.
There are about six billion souls out there.
There's another five billion that have not yet heard the gospel,
Or have not yet taken it to heart completely.
We must pray and we must work.
We have a lot of work.
We have a lot of fishing to do.
And we must do so in the bark of Peter.
With Peter and with his successors,
We will bring in a large number.
Without Peter,
Or if we try to do it not with Peter,
We will not catch anything.
Because Peter is fishing for Christ.
He's not tending his own sheep.
He's doing it for Christ.
In the name of the Father,
And of the Son,
And of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.