Sermons to the People 247.1–249.3

The resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the truth of the four evangelists seems to have been completed yesterday. For on the first day the resurrection was read according to Matthew, on another day according to Luke, on the third according to Mark, on the fourth, that is yesterday, according to John. But since John and Luke wrote a great deal about the resurrection itself and what happened after the resurrection, which cannot be recited in one reading, we heard something according to John yesterday, and today, and other readings still remain. What then did we hear today? That on the very day he rose, that is, on the Lord’s day, when it was evening, and the disciples were in one place, and the doors were shut for fear of the Jews, the Lord appeared in their midst. On that very day, then, as the evangelist John testifies, he appeared twice to his disciples, in the morning and in the evening. The reading about his appearing in the morning has been recited too; that he appeared again on the same day in the evening, we have just heard as it was recited. There was no need for me to mention these things, except that you should notice them; but because of the lesser understanding or greater carelessness of some, it was right to mention them, so that you may know not only what you heard but also from which Scripture what you heard is read to you.

Let us see, then, what today’s reading sets before us to speak about. For the reading itself admonishes us, and in a way speaks to us, that we should say something about how the Lord, who rose in such solidity of body that he was not only seen by the disciples but also touched, could appear to them with the doors shut. For some are so troubled about this that they are almost in danger, bringing the prejudgments of their own reasonings against the divine miracles. For they argue thus: “If it was a body, if there were flesh and bones, if what hung on the wood rose from the tomb, how could it enter through shut doors?” If it could not, they say, it did not happen. If it could, how could it? If you grasp the manner, it is not a miracle; and if it does not seem a miracle to you, you come close to denying that he rose from the tomb too. Look back at the miracles of your Lord from the beginning, and give me an account of each. A man did not approach, and a virgin conceived. Give an account of how a virgin conceived without a male. Where reason fails, there faith is built up. See, you have one miracle in the Lord’s conception; hear one also in his birth. A virgin gave birth and remained a virgin. Already then, before he rose, the Lord was born through shut doors. You ask me and say: “If he entered through shut doors, where is the measure of a body?” And I answer: “If he walked on the sea, where is the weight of a body?” But the Lord did that as Lord. Did he, then, cease to be Lord when he rose? What of his making Peter too walk on the sea? What divinity could do in the one, faith accomplished in the other. But Christ, because he was able; Peter, because Christ helped him. If, then, you begin to examine the reason of miracles by human sense, I fear you may lose faith. Do you not know that nothing is impossible with God? Whoever says to you, then, “If he entered through shut doors, it was not a body,” answer him the other way round: “No, if he was touched, it was a body; if he ate, it was a body; and he did that by miracle, not by nature.” Is not the daily course of nature itself to be wondered at? All things are full of miracles, but they have grown cheap by repetition. Give me an account (I ask about something customary and usual): give an account why the seed of so great a tree as the fig is so small that it can hardly be seen, while the lowly gourd brings forth so large a seed. Yet in that tiny grain of seed, hardly visible, if you consider it with the mind, not with the eyes, in that smallness, in those narrow bounds, both the root lies hidden and the strength is grafted in, the future leaves are bound up, and the fruit that will appear on the tree is already sent ahead in the seed. There is no need to run through many things: no one gives an account of daily things, and you demand of me an account of miracles. Read the Gospel, then, and believe the deeds that are wonderful. What God has done is greater, and you do not marvel at what surpasses all works: there was nothing, and there is a world.

“But,” you say, “the bulk of a body could not pass through doors which were shut.” How great was that bulk, I ask you? As great, surely, as it is in all men: was it as great as it is in a camel? Surely not so great. Read the Gospel, hear him himself: when he wanted to show the difficulty of a rich man entering the kingdom of heaven, he said: “It is easier for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Hearing this, the disciples, considering that it could in no way happen that a camel should enter through the eye of a needle, were saddened among themselves, saying: “If it is so, who then can be saved?” If it is easier for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, and in no way can a camel enter through the eye of a needle, then none of the rich can be saved. The Lord answered: “What is impossible with men is easy for God.” God can both pass a camel through the eye of a needle and bring a rich man into the kingdom of heaven. Why do you raise false objections to me about shut doors? Shut doors have at least a crack: compare the crack of the doors with the eye of a needle, compare the bulk of human flesh with the size of camels; and do not raise false objections against the divinity of the miracles.

Today too a reading was recited about what was done after the Lord’s resurrection, according to the evangelist John. Your Love heard with us that the Lord Jesus Christ showed himself to his disciples by the sea of Tiberias; and he who had already made them fishers of men found them still fishers of fish. All night they caught nothing; but when they saw the Lord and, at his command, let down the nets, they caught the number you heard. The Lord would never have commanded this unless he wished to signify something which it would profit us to know. For what great thing could it matter to Jesus Christ whether fish were caught or not caught? But that fishing was a sign of us. Let us recall, then, with you those two fishings of the disciples done at the command of the Lord Jesus Christ, one before the passion, the other after the resurrection. In these two fishings the whole Church is figured, both as it is now and as it will be in the resurrection of the dead. For now it has many without number, both good and bad; but after the resurrection it will have only the good, in a fixed number.

Remember, then, the first fishing, in which we may see the Church as it is in this time. The Lord Jesus found his disciples fishing when he first called them to follow him. Then they had caught nothing all night. But when they saw him, they heard from him: “Let down the nets.” “Lord,” they said, “we have caught nothing all night; but see, at your word we let down the net.” They let it down at the Almighty’s command. What else could happen but what he had willed? Yet by that very deed he deigned, as I said, to signify something to us which it profits us to know. The nets were let down. The Lord had not yet suffered, had not yet risen. The nets were let down; they caught so many fish that two boats were filled, and the nets themselves were torn by that same multitude of fish. Then he said to them: “Come, and I will make you fishers of men.” They received from him the nets of the word of God; they let them down into the world as into a deep sea; they caught the great multitude of Christians that we see and marvel at. And those two boats signified two peoples, of the Jews and of the Gentiles, of the Synagogue and of the Church, of the circumcision and of the uncircumcision. For of those two boats, as of two walls coming from different directions, Christ is the cornerstone. But what did we hear? The boats were weighed down by the multitude. So it happens now: many Christians who live badly weigh down the Church. It is not enough that they weigh it down: they also break the nets. For if the nets had not been torn, schisms would not have been committed.

Let us pass, then, from this fishing which we endure, and come to that one which we ardently long for and faithfully desire. See, the Lord died, but he rose; he appeared by the sea to his disciples; he commands them to let down the nets, not just anyhow. Pay attention. For in the first fishing he did not say to them, “Let down the nets on the right,” or “on the left.” For if he had said “on the left,” only the bad would be signified; if he had said “on the right,” only the good would be figured. So he said neither “on the right” nor “on the left,” because the good to be caught were mixed with the bad. Now hear what the Church will be like after the resurrection; discern, rejoice, hope, grasp it. “Let down the nets,” he says, “on the right side.” Now those on the right are caught: let no bad ones be feared. For you know that he said he would separate the sheep from the goats, put the sheep on the right and the goats on the left; would say to those on the left, “Go into the eternal fire,” and to those on the right, “Receive the kingdom.” See where “Let down the nets on the right side” comes from. They let them down, they caught: the number is fixed; no one there is beyond the number. But now how many beyond the number come to the altar, are seen among the people of God, and are not written in the book of life! There, then, the number is fixed. Strive to be among those fish, not only by hearing and praising but by understanding and living well. So the nets are let down, great fish are caught. For who is small there then, when they will be equal to the angels of God? Great fish are caught, then, a hundred and fifty-three. Someone will say to me: “And will the saints be so many?” Far be it from us to suppose that the saints, even of this Church alone, who will be in that kingdom, are so few. The number will be fixed; but there will be thousands of thousands from the people of Israel. Saint John in the Apocalypse says that of the people of Israel alone there will be twelve times twelve thousand, who have not defiled themselves with women, for they remained virgins. But from the other nations, he says, so many thousands of people come in white robes that no one can number them.

This number, then, signifies something, and at the yearly feast I must remind you in this sermon of what you are accustomed to hear every year. A hundred and fifty-three fish is a number signifying thousands of thousands of saints and faithful. But why did the Lord deign to signify by this number the many thousands who will be in the kingdom of heaven? Hear why. You know that the Law was given through Moses to the people of God, and that in that Law the Decalogue, that is, the ten commandments of the Law, is set out as chief. Of these, one commandment is about worshiping the one God; the second commandment, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain”; the third commandment is about keeping the sabbath, which Christians keep spiritually and the Jews violate carnally. These three commandments concern God, the other seven concern men; because of those two chief ones: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind”; and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.” Since, then, these commandments are two, in that Decalogue three concern the love of God, and seven the love of neighbor. What are the seven that concern man? “Honor your father and mother; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; you shall not covet your neighbor’s property.” No one fulfills these ten commandments by his own strength unless he is helped by the grace of God. If, then, no one fulfills the law by his own strength unless God helps by his Spirit, recall now how the Holy Spirit is commended by the number seven, as the holy prophet says that a man is to be filled with the Spirit of God, “of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and strength, of knowledge and piety, the Spirit of the fear of God.” These seven workings commend the Holy Spirit by the number seven; he, as it were descending to us, begins from wisdom and ends at fear. But we, ascending, begin from fear and are perfected in wisdom. For “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” If, then, the Spirit is needed so that the law can be fulfilled, let seven be added to ten: the number seventeen results. If you count from one up to seventeen, they make a hundred and fifty-three. There is no need to count everything now; count at home. Reckon it this way: one and two and three and four are ten. As ten is one and two and three and four, so add the other numbers up to seventeen, and you find the sacred number of the faithful and saints who will be with the Lord in heaven.

We have heard the Gospel, how the Lord Jesus after the resurrection appeared to his disciples as they were fishing by the sea of Tiberias. When he first called them, he had said to them: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” And then indeed, when they were called, letting down the nets at his word, they caught a great multitude of fish; but the number was not told. Next, in that first fishing he had not said to them, “Let down the net on the right side,” but had only said, “Let down”; he said neither “on the right” nor “on the left.” And so great a number of fish was caught that it was without number, and their boats were loaded. And how were they loaded? The Gospel speaks thus: “So that they were almost sinking.” Then he said to them what I mentioned: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” We belong to those very nets; we have indeed been caught in those nets, but we do not remain captives. Let a man not fear to be caught: if he can be caught, he cannot be deceived. But what does this last fishing mean, about which the Gospel was read today? The Lord appeared to the fishermen, standing on the shore, and asked them whether they had anything to eat. They said they had nothing; for they had caught nothing all night. And he said to them, “Let down on the right side,” which he had not said then. And they did so, and they could not haul in the nets for the multitude of fish. And the fish were found to be a hundred and fifty-three. And since in that first fishing it had been said that the nets were breaking for the multitude of fish, the evangelist took care to say in this fishing: “And although they were so large, the net was not torn.”

Let us distinguish the two fishings: one before the resurrection, the other after the resurrection. In the former the nets are let down anywhere: the right is not named, lest only the good be understood; the left is not named, lest only the bad be understood; so good and bad are mixed. And the nets were breaking for the multitude. The broken nets signify schisms. We see it: so it is, so it happens. The two boats are filled, because of the two peoples, from the circumcision and from the uncircumcision; and they are so filled that they are weighed down and almost sink. What this signifies is to be groaned over. The crowd has troubled the Church. What a great number those who live badly have made, weighing it down and making it groan! But because of the good fish the boats did not sink. Let us discuss that last fishing after the resurrection. No bad one is there; great security, but only if you are good. Be good among the bad, and you will be good without the bad. In this fishing there is something to move you: you are among the bad. O you who hear me faithfully, O you for whom what I say is not lost, O you for whom the word does not pass through the ears but goes down into the heart, O you who fear living badly more than dying badly (for if you live well, you cannot die badly): you, then, who hear me so as not only to believe but also to live well, live well, and live well among the bad; do not break the nets. Those who were greatly pleased with themselves, and as if refused to bear with the bad, broke the nets and perished in the sea. Live well among the bad; do not let bad Christians persuade you to live badly. Let your heart not say, “I alone am good.” If you have begun to be good, believe that others are too, if you could be. Do not commit adultery, do not commit sexual immorality, do not commit fraud, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not swear falsely, do not get drunk, do not deny a loan, do not fail to return what you found belonging to someone in the street. Do these things and such as these, secure among the bad fish. You swim within the same nets; but you will come to the shore; after the resurrection you will be found on the right. There no one is bad. For what good is it to you that you know the law, that you know God’s commandments, that you know what is good and bad, if you do not do it? Is not knowledge itself punished by conscience? Learn in such a way that you do.

God’s commandments, because of a great mystery of perfection, are contained in the Decalogue. The ten commandments of the Law were written on tablets of stone by the finger of God, that is, by the Holy Spirit: on one tablet the commandments that concern God, on the other those that concern man. Why this? Because on the love of God and of neighbor hang the whole Law and the Prophets. But what are these ten worth? The law was given; but “if a law had been given that could give life, righteousness would indeed be from the law.” You know the law, and you do not do the law: “the letter kills.” But that you may do what you know, “the Spirit gives life.” Let seven be added to ten. For as the law is signified by the Decalogue, so the Holy Spirit is shown to be sevenfold. He is invoked over the baptized, that God may give them, according to the prophet, “the Spirit of wisdom and understanding”: see, two; “the Spirit of counsel and strength”: see, four; “the Spirit of knowledge and piety”: see, six; “the Spirit of the fear of the Lord”: see, seven. When these seven have been added, ten result. What did I say? It sounds absurd: when seven have been added to ten, ten result; as if I had forgotten how to count. So I ought to have said: when seven have been added to ten, seventeen result. Everyone knows that: for when I said, when seven have been added to ten, ten result, were not these boys laughing at me? And yet I say it, and repeat it, and I do not blush. When you have understood, you will not find fault with the one counting but will love the one reasoning. Those ten are the commandments of the law; but I have also counted the seven co-workings of the Holy Spirit. When these seven have been added, the ten come about: when the Holy Spirit has come, the law is fulfilled. But if these seven have not been added, those ten do not come about: they will be in the letter, but the letter kills; knowledge makes a transgressor. Let the Spirit come, and the law is fulfilled, by God’s help, not by your strength. So see: let us not much love to belong to those ten. For “if righteousness is from the law, then Christ died for nothing.” But where should we belong? To those seven? That would be as if we could act but did not know what we were doing. So let us belong to the seventeen. The law commands, the Spirit helps: the law deals with you so that you know what to do; the Spirit, so that you do it. So let us belong to the seventeen, and count up seventeen, and we shall find ourselves in the hundred and fifty-three. You know it now; I have often said it, often shown it. From one to four makes ten, but only if you add them all. Let two follow one: add two, and there are three; after two let three follow, and there are six; after three let four follow, and there are ten. Why do I wear myself out? I am saying what you know. Add the other numbers, and you will get there. When you have come to seventeen, by growing you will come to a hundred and fifty-three. What is “by growing”? By making progress, as by steps, you will come to the right. Obey us; count for yourselves.