The Net of the Christian Name

Gospel Reflection for April 25, 2025 - John 21:1-14

After this, Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias. And he shewed himself after this manner.

There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas, who is called Didymus, and Nathanael, who was of Cana of Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples.

Simon Peter saith to them: I go a fishing. They say to him: We also come with thee. And they went forth, and entered into the ship: and that night they caught nothing.

But when the morning was come, Jesus stood on the shore: yet the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.

Jesus therefore said to them: Children, have you any meat? They answered him: No.

He saith to them: Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and you shall find. They cast therefore; and now they were not able to draw it, for the multitude of fishes.

That disciple therefore whom Jesus loved, said to Peter: It is the Lord. Simon Peter, when he heard that it was the Lord, girt his coat about him, (for he was naked,) and cast himself into the sea.

But the other disciples came in the ship, (for they were not far from the land, but as it were two hundred cubits,) dragging the net with fishes.

As soon then as they came to land, they saw hot coals lying, and a fish laid thereon, and bread.

Jesus saith to them: Bring hither of the fishes which you have now caught.

Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land, full of great fishes, one hundred and fifty-three. And although there were so many, the net was not broken.

Jesus saith to them: Come, and dine. And none of them who were at meat, durst ask him: Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.

And Jesus cometh and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish in like manner.

This is now the third time that Jesus was manifested to his disciples, after he was risen from the dead. (John 21:1-14 DRA)

For this Friday in the Octave of Easter, St. John gives us a profound image of the End Times, an eschatological and apocalyptic vision of the Church as it is now, following Christ’s Resurrection, and as it will be in the New Heaven and New Earth. This may be hard to see at first, as is often the case in the deeply mystical language of St. John, whose mind was raised by the Holy Ghost far above even the other sacred writers of the New Testament, but it is there for those who have eyes to see. St. Augustine gives what is arguably the most beautiful exegesis of this anagogical symbolism:

The shore is the end of the sea, and therefore signifies the end of the world. The Church is here typified as she will be at the end of the world, just as other draughts of fishes typified her as she is now. Jesus before did not stand on the shore, but went into a ship which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. In a former draught the nets are not thrown to the right, or to the left, so that the good or the bad should be typified alone, but indifferently: Let down your nets for a draught, (Luke 5:4) meaning that the good and bad were mixed together. But here it is, Cast the net on the right side of the ship; to signify those who should stand on the right hand, the good. The one our Lord did at the beginning of His ministry, the other after His resurrection, shewing therein that the former draught of fishes signified the mixture of bad and good, which composes the Church at present; the latter the good alone, which it will contain in eternity, when the world is ended, and the resurrection of the dead completed. But they who belong to the resurrection of life, i. e. to the right hand, and are caught within the net of the Christian name, shall only appear on the shore, i. e. at the end of the world, after the resurrection: wherefore they were not able to draw the net into the ship, and unload the fishes, as they were before. The Church keeps these of the right hand, after death, in the sleep of peace, as it were in the deep, till the net come to shore. (Catena Aurea)

In this way, the Church, the Barque of St. Peter, is fulfilling its mission to evangelize, or, in the earlier imagery of Our Lord, to be “fishers of men.” (Mt 4:19) The apostles will be reminded of this after the Ascension by the holy angels; while their ordinary profession of fishing is not immoral, it is not their highest calling, either as Christians or even more so as the first bishops and priests of the Church, to wit, the preaching of the Gospel first begun by St. John the Baptist and culminating in the Great Commission: “Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” (Mt 28:19)

But here, Christ shows them that in this life, they work in the world, carrying the people of God in nets alongside the Barque through the choppy waters of temptations, hoping to lose none of them. Yet, they can only fulfill this divine mission by the grace of Christ. If they remain faithful, they will bring the nets to that far shore, where Christ lives no longer in the world but with His Father in Heaven, preparing mansions for His saints to dwell in (Jn 14:2) for their eternal marriage to the Lamb. (Apoc 19:7, 9) The Bread of Heaven, the “hidden manna” (Apoc 2:17) which we sample even now in the Eucharist, awaits us, and St. Peter, the great Pontifex or spiritual bridge-builder of the Church, goes before us to bring Heaven to Earth on every altar in the world.

There is also an important connection here with the first reading from Acts, where St. Peter says, “This is the stone which was rejected by you the builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:11-12) Contrary to modern religious pluralism, indifferentism and ecumenicalism, God does not “will all religions,” nor are other religions simply different “traditions” or “paths” up the same mountain.

There is one path, the Way of Christ, and to either side of it is only wilderness fading into eternal darkness. This must be at the heart of Christian evangelization, ecumenism and apologetics: we are waging a war “not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places” (Eph 6:12) for the salvation of souls, and the prize is the heavenly meeting with Christ shown in this Gospel, to which we should race with the same ebullient joy as shown by St. Peter.

During this papal conclave, let us pray fervently for a holy and wise pope who will restore Tradition to the Church and cleanse her of all corruption.