The Call to be Fishers of Men: Casters and Menders of the Net

At the start of Jesus’ public ministry, He begins by calling the twelve apostles.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus begins by calling two brothers, Simon Peter and Andrew, and as the text seems to indicate, along the same stroll along the beach, He also called two other brothers, James and John.

The first two brothers, Peter and Andrew, are "casting a net into the sea" when Jesus sees them (4:18). Presumably while they are still in the boat, He calls out to them to follow Him. The second pair of brothers, James and John, are seen and called by Jesus while in their father’s boat “mending their nets” (4:21). In both instances the Greek adverb εὐθέως, meaning “immediately,” is used to describe the response of the pairs of brothers to Jesus’ call.

What is interesting is how Jesus does not say, “Stop what you are doing, I have better work for you to do.” He says to the first pair of brothers— “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (4:19). He appropriates the very work they are undertaking as fisherman, without undermining or trivialising it, and calls them as fisherman into the sacred ministry. Jesus is appealing to the brothers’ as working men, summoning them to leave one boat, and to enter another—that of the nascent Church. He is not telling them to put their fishing days behind them, but He is telling them to fish for ‘bigger fish,’ ‘greater fish’ —the ultimate aim of any fisherman. Jesus is offering a spiritual catch of souls. (On a side note, there's also a tip here for evangelising: accommodate the call of Christ to a person's situation and occupation, speak to who they are.)

In following Jesus, Peter, Andrew, James and John thus let go of their physical nets, but take hold of a new spiritual net—the net of the Gospel and the Kingdom which God has prepared for them to cast out into the sea of the nations. As Jesus himself says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a net which was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind” (Mt 13:47).

When one considers the two types of actions the pairs of brothers were engaged in when Jesus first saw and called them—casting the net and mending the net—we can apprehend two main spiritual roles in the Christian life.

In a general sense, as Christians, we are all called as casters of the net and as repairers of the net.

Casting the net describes the more noticeably active role in the Christian life. It’s hands on, tangibly effective, and immediate to the results hoped for—a catch. As casters of the net we are called to share the Good News of the faith, in word, but mainly in deed, in the lives we live. A kind, dutiful, and joyful Christian life of integrity, is itself a net capable of catching many souls for the Kingdom of God. The active dimension of every vocation and state of life is summarised in the role of casting the net. The parent casts the net in the work and effort they exert into raising children; the priest casts the net as he preaches and tends to the flock given to him; the employee casts the net by carrying out his or her work as a Christian, in a charitable, studious way.

To cast the net encapsulates all that externally happens out on the seas of life. All that is portioned out to us to do when God pushes our little boat into the world, the parish, the family, to catch souls for the Kingdom. For most of us, it’s where most of the excitement happens, where drama, anxiety, frustration, and fulfillment are namely found.

If one asked a fisherman, “What do you do?” He’d say, “I fish.” “What do you mean?” “I cast lines and nets to catch fish.” He would not say, “I clean boats, wait around a lot, wash and carry buckets and fix broken nets.” Even though these activities can even make up most of a fisherman’s work, the act of fishing itself is the heart of the work, and everything that surrounds the act of fishing is either in preparation to catch fish or to distribute the catch. It’s all about the catch but the other stuff is vital. To speak only of preparation—no preparation, no catch.

If time is not spent fixing nets, then casting the net is a vain and pointless exercise. A broken net is not going to catch a thing.

While Peter and Andrew were casting their nets, James and John were mending theirs. The Greek word translated here as mending is καταρτίζοντας—meaning ‘to restore, join together, adjust, make complete.’ They were thus tying together parts of the net where the knots had broken and were adding new pieces of cord to repair holes caused by wear and tear.

Mending the net on face value is not as exciting as casting the net. It takes patience and belief that it’s for a purpose, that it’s worth doing and will help bring about a catch.

Mending the net describes the more passive role of the Christian life—prayer. Of course prayer is an active phenomenon, charged with a spiritual activity greater than any external deed, but from a human standpoint it is the calmer, more passive element of our faith. It consists in the Liturgy above all, in Eucharistic adoration, and in moments of vocal prayer, meditation, such as the Rosary, and silent contemplation. In these times of prayer, we are bringing-in the boat of our soul to be rejuvenated for the mission. We do our little bit in prayer, but above all it is a time when God, through us, restores the net—both in our personal lives and in the broader sense of the entire Church. When even one soul prays the spiritual net of the Church experiences a restoration, a strengthening for more effective use in catching souls for Christ.

The works we do in the Christian life in the exercise of our vocations—that which makes up the tapestry of our own net—is held together by grace and supernatural love. It is important to remember this because it’s easy to sail through the Christian life forgetting that we rely on, and need, grace and love from God to effectively be fishers of men. How easy it is to set out each day on the sea of life without paying any attention to the condition of our nets. Without prayer the Christian soul is like a fisherman who sails out to sea without any hope of being effective, casting a mangled mess into the sea expecting to find a catch. The fish will spot that tangle from a mile away and will swim elsewhere. Prayer fills us with grace and allows God to work more effectively through us—it is Him after all who must cast the net in our casting, lest we cast in vain.

We receive a share in the spiritual net of the Church when we are baptised. But this net is a gift from God and our portion of it can only be maintained by grace and supernatural love. Prayer is that time set aside to allow God to mend our net to make us better fishers of men for God. By prayer we also exercise the Christian role of mending the net of the universal Church, mysteriously aiding other souls in the exercise of their vocations.

The very biblical and Catholic notion of making reparation, of joining Christ in repairing for the sins of the world, is also described in this notion of mending the nets. Our prayer repairs for the faults of the Church’s members, and directly fortifies the Church in her mission of saving souls.

In a general sense, every Christian is called to both roles—casting the net and mending the net. Both are vital and complimentary, one cannot take place without the other. Yet there are also different callings in the Church and each calling summons us to follow Christ by doing a little more casting than mending, or contrarily, a little more mending than casting.

The main function of the clergy is to minister to, support and nurture the faith of the laity (CCC 874-879). In this respect the office of mending the net of the Church belongs especially to the clergy, to help mend the nets of the laity in the exercise of their priestly office, above all in the sacraments of the Holy Eucharist and Confession.

In contrast, the laity “are in the front line of Church life,” since they are the presence of the Church in the midst of human society (CCC 899). The laity in this respect are the primary net casters appointed by God, because they are the ones out on the sea of human life, in the family home and workplace, in the social settings of life far more than the clergy who minister to the nets of the Church, as the laity cast it.

Of course, the roles are reversed in another sense, the clergy are also net casters, the laity net menders, but we exhibit a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of the clergy and laity when the clergy are expected to be the main missionaries present in society, when this role belongs to the laity. The clergy are namely (but not only) there to tend to the laity in the Church, this includes ‘evangelising’ the laity, while the laity are namely supposed to bring the Church into society, and society into the Church—that is, to evangelise, to cast out the net into the broader world.

On the other hand, aside from the fundamental callings appropriate to the clergy and laity in the Church, there are additional callings to the active or the contemplative life. In a specific sense these callings apply to forms of the consecrated life, but in a broader way, members of the Church in general can be considered to be called along a more contemplative or a more active path—it is a matter of emphasis.

Some are appointed primarily to be casters in the boat of the Church. These are those called primarily to an active life: a Christian life lived in the world, among society, where the state of one’s life demands duties that revolve around a primary service—either service to members of the secular community (e.g. disadvantaged), to a spiritual community (e.g. parish), or to one’s family.  The active life is on the front line when it comes to evangelising—it is the direct point of contact between the Church and the catch of souls God is wanting to bring into the Church.

The active life depends on prayer. First, on the individual prayer of those who live the active life, but secondly, on the prayer of the broader Church—especially the prayers of those who live the contemplative life.

Those who are called primarily to a contemplative life are appointed primarily to be repairers of the Church’s net. The patience of a life lived in prayer, lived in faith that such a life and such prayer is not pointless, but is for the good of the Church, is vitally necessary for the success of those casting out on the sea. The missionary, service and evangelistic efforts of the Church would not only lose efficacy, but would fall prey to becoming mere human mechanisms stripped of supernatural love and divine power should the contemplative role in the Church be removed. The Church, which consists mostly of those called to a life more active than contemplative, relies on its contemplative members to service the nets used in the exercise of its mission.

The contemplative state finds its greatest home in contemplative monastic orders, like the Benedictines and cloistered Carmelite nuns—their monasteries and cloisters are places of net mending par excellence. Just as ground zero for orders such as St. Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, or the Dominicans as the Order of Preachers, and for lay organisations like St. Vincent de Paul, are places of net casting par excellence. Meanwhile, at the pulpit, and above all at the Altar where the Sacrifice of the Mass takes place, we find the ultimate place from where the net of the Church is both restored and cast, since through the priest, it is Christ Himself directly carrying out both roles.

In our own lives it is useful to be aware of the dual calling we have to be casters of the net and menders of the net, in addition to the unique emphasis this call might take according to our state of life and individual spirituality. No matter what we do in life we are always casting a net or repairing it, it is an existential metaphor for everything entailed our exterior and interior life. But whether we are helping the world repair its net, and are assisting Satan in casting it, so as to catch souls for hell, or whether we are helping the Church repair its net, and are assisting Jesus in casting it to catch souls for heaven, is up to us.

We may or may not, depending on the nature of God's call to us, need to leave behind the literal nets of our occupations and families, but whatever we do, as clergy or laity, actives or contemplatives, it can be done for love of Jesus, with the salvation of souls in mind. In this way we can be fishers of men for God, whether mostly casting the net or mending it, contributing to the Church's catch—catching hearts to know, love and serve Him too.