Evenings with Bede: S3, Ep. 12: On S. Peter as Fisher of Men

Evenings with Bede: S3, Ep. 12: On S. Peter as Fisher of Men

In the audio provided, both lessons are read, and then followed by a homily by yours truly. A Lesson from the Gospel According to S. Luke, 5.1 While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear the word of God, Jesus was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” A Lesson of Commentary by the Ven. S. Bede The Lake of Gennesaret is called by the Greek word, “Gennesar, (meaning) its water is not spread out flat like a pool, but is stirred by frequent breezes, sweet to taste, and good for drinking. This lake or sea signifies the present age, the Lord standing by the sea, when, after overcoming the mortality of fleeting life in that flesh in which He suffered, He entered upon the stability of eternal rest. The assemblage of crowds is an allegorical figure of the nations rushing together to Him in faith, as Isaiah says, And all nations shall flow to it, and many people shall go, and say: Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord (Is 2:2-3). The two ships placed by the lake symbolize circumcision and lack of circumcision. Jesus is well said to have seen them, because among both people the Lord knows who are His, and he conveys their heart from the billows of this age to the calm of future life, by seeing them as it were coming towards the firmness of the shore, that is, by seeing them with the mercy of His heart. The fishermen are the preachers of the Church, who convey us are caught in the net of faith, and brought up from the deep to the light, like fish to the shore, and so to the land of the living. For like the nets of the fishermen, certain sayings of the preachers are complex in order not to lose those whom they have caught in faith. When Peter says, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets,” we see that unless the Lord illuminates the heart of the pupils [disciples], the teachers labours [useless] in the night. Unless the tools of disputation are let down at the word of divine grace, the preacher hurls the javelin of his word in vain, because the faith of the people springs not from the wisdom of logical terminology, but from the gift of a divine calling. When Our Lord says, “from now on you will be catching men,” the Lord explains that just as now he catches fish with nets, so in the future he will catch men with words. And the Lord also explains that the whole order of this action shows what is done daily in the Church. If you find this edifying, please consider (if you haven’t already) becoming a paid subscriber. Your support goes directly to supporting the ministry of Akenside Institute for English Spirituality [https://akensideinstitute.org/], a project I started 12 years ago to help to rebuild the Anglican tradition. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe [https://frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

On Awe at Christ's Divine Power

Saint Luke tells us that after Saint Peter saw the great catch of fish, he fell down at the knees of Jesus. And in falling down, Peter said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.” Luke tells us that Peter was astonished. And who, brothers and sisters, would not be astonished? Peter was an experienced fisherman, surrounded by many such fishermen. They know the waters; they know when it is time to fish, and time to call it a day. But after Jesus had ceased speaking, Christ said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Peter here does not openly resist or debate Jesus. He follows Our Lord’s command, but not before saying, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” Peter has faith: calling Him “Master,” and doing what Our Lord commanded. Perhaps Peter said these words to save face in case no fish were caught; that the other fisherman knew the command to let down the nets came from Jesus, and not from Peter. Peter’s faith in Jesus is growing (for how many of us would be comfortable calling anyone “Master” in public?”) yet a garden-variety self-centeredness is still at play. And we would expect this of him, and of all the disciples. They are still learning about Jesus, and they are still learning how He fulfills the Law, and fulfills Scripture. Jesus never expects His followers to understand everything about Him immediately; He knows we have to grow in knowledge of Him, and through growing in knowledge, growing in faith. Yet also, there are moments described in the Gospel that show Christ’s power; that show Him teaching with such authority unseen by anyone before: and this was one of them. Upon His Word, a great shoal of fish was brought in, so much so that their nets were breaking. And what’s more, all the fish filled two boats, and they began to sink. Just as the new wine of the Gospel would make old wine skins explode, and therefore need new containers, the tried and true boats were not sufficient to handle the fruits of the Gospel: a new boat would be needed, which is the Church, the ark of salvation. And so it was in witnessing all this, that Peter was astonished, and he was moved to fall down at the knees of Jesus and say, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Yet what, we must ask, is the reason that Peter says he is sinful? Where specifically was his sin? Was it distrusting Jesus? But Peter did trust Jesus. Was it being still a prisoner of self-centeredness? Maybe, but it was not a serious case of self-centeredness. And, realistically speaking, would the self-recognition of this drive Peter to say “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord?” It would drive us more plausibly to say, “Lord, forgive me.” “Lord, I am sorry.” Or something more to scale. “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” is way out of scale, given the faith and obedience demonstrated by Peter. What is really going on in Peter and his reaction? The answer is that, as what happened to Saint Paul at his conversion, Peter is starting to perceive the Divine Majesty of Jesus Christ. This upends Peter’s life and mindset. This is the same realization that Saint Paul had at his conversion. Or Isaiah when he saw the seraphim singing, “Holy, Holy, Holy.” When Jesus confronts us with Himself, the Truth frees us, but in freeing us, it also disorients they way we live and the way we think. Paul was so disoriented that he was blind until his baptism, and then spent three years in the Arabian desert lands to find a new orientation entirely in Christ. Peter is experiencing the same thing; whereas Paul went blind and numb, Peter with a different personality than Paul, was repentant in its primary sense: experiencing awe before the King of Creation and His miracles. The miracles of Christ are signs of divine power, and they are to teach, not merely astound. The nets were full of fish because creation is a continuous process of love, not a system of infallible laws, and the Creator incarnate in Christ has the right to change the process as the artist, and only the artist, has the right to alter his own picture: prayer controls matter. It has been revealed that Christ transfigures reality, and because of that, Christ makes all of creation sacramental. Christ redeems creation, and we know that because Christ offers to God material objects … that they may become part of Christ’s sacrifice, that, being offered to God, they may be transformed by the divine acceptance. Here Christ offers fish and nets and boats, so that for us to see our Master at work, we may be drawn into awe at Christ’s Divine Majesty, and drawn into new life and new mindset of thanksgiving: the life and mindset which is eucharistic, because “eucharist” means thanksgiving. The eyes of the heart of Peter, like the eyes of the heart of Paul, were being enlightened by Jesus. The Light of Christ was blinding them both, overwhelming them both, and throwing them both into awe and wonder. And so it was for this reason that Peter said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Peter was overwhelmed, he needed to be alone; he was truly starting to understand what his brother Andrew had first told me: “We have found the Messiah (which means Christ).” Peter had heard this, but was now inwardly digesting that Jesus is the Savior. As we receive the Eucharist this morning, let us do so knowing that what we inwardly digest is Jesus Christ, through Whom all of creation is made and recreated. We offered bread and wine to God so that He would transform them: God takes the bread and wine, and He recreates, redeems, and restores the bread and wine, and returns them to us as Jesus Christ, the King of Creation, the Eternal Word, the only-begotten Son of God: Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. 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On the Eucharist and Spiritual Awareness

O God, the protector of all that trust in Thee, without Whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us Thy mercy; that, Thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal: Grant this, O heavenly Father, for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. In my sermon today during our midweek liturgy, I preached on this pericope from St Matthew 17:11-18: And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elijah truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, That Elijah is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist. And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour. And during my preaching, I referenced this teaching from the 12th century Church Father, S. Hugh of St Victor, who is pictured below: “The good Word and wise Life that made the world is perceived when the world is contemplated. The Word itself cannot be seen, but the Word both made what can be seen and is seen through what He made.” (On the Three Days, 1.1) Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe [https://frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

On Eucharistic Community

“Judge not, and you will not be judged.” Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ teaches this to us. In teaching this, Christ gives us a commandment about life in eucharistic community—how to live in community—a community the nature of which is people in prayer and celebrating the Eucharist: that we are not to judge. While it may not seem the case, in fact this is a teaching shrouded in the mystery of God: for this teaching seems contrary to the actions of Him Who, for example, drove the money changers out of the Temple for their inappropriate behavior, having, it seems, judged them to be unfit for worship in the community. And so, because of this seeming contradiction, continuing our reflections in Trinitytide on the “eucharistic life,” we look at the mystery of life in eucharistic community. “Judge not, and you will not be judged.” It is short; it has a ring to it. Yet, despite its brevity, is its meaning straightforward? Are we to turn a blind eye to sin committed by others? Such as in our parish family, are we to pretend someone sinning is not in fact sinning? Or that, despite the fact that certain persons in a community are sowing dissension and discord in the congregation, it is all good? Or that what such a person is doing is their business, and not for us to take mind about? It seems like it could be about that, does it not? Judge not this person’s sinful behavior, and you will not be judged, seems like what Jesus is teaching. Judge not and you will not be judged sounds like accept and tolerate and look the other way. Yet we see in the teaching of Saint Paul, who because of the gifts given to him by God has always been recognized by the Church as proclaiming the Gospel and sharing true teachings not of himself but of Christ, that Paul had no patience for people sinning within the parish community. We need look no further than Paul’s first epistle to the church in Corinth. In it he clearly called to task all sorts of misbehavior: anyone sowing divisions within the parish; persons engaging in sexual immortality; appealing to a secular court instead of settling disputes within the parish community; disunity at the celebration of the Eucharist; speaking in tongues, and more. Paul is calling out sinful behavior, and he is calling out unacceptable behavior, of this there can be no question. Furthermore, respecting sexual immortality, Paul writes in 1 Cor 5:4-5, “In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, along with my spirit, within the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” Does Paul teach us to accept, tolerate, and look the other way? Clearly Paul is not. Does this conflict with Jesus’s commandment, to judge not? It seems to, but in fact, there is no conflict. What Paul teaches is to discern sinful behavior. To see it for what it is. Discern sinful behavior: meaning to perceive, to recognize, to distinguish and discriminate between sinful behavior and godly behavior. The Devil wants us to accept, tolerate, and look the other way. To discern sinful behavior is not to judge, but rather to see clearly, by the light of Christ and His virtuous life which we are to imitate. Without the light of Christ, we cannot distinguish right from wrong, instead relying on whether something is legal or illegal according to civil law, or simply our personal opinion and personal morality. We are to look to Christ, for He reveals the life of virtue, the life of godly behavior. And when a person not only falls short of that, but chooses to fall short, choosing to sin–knowing what the life of Christ is and choosing to live contrary to His life—we are to recognize this, and we are not to ignore it. We are to not pretend it is not happening, but make it known in the community in appropriate ways. Judging a person is something different than all this. We are not to judge. Judging people is not Christian, according to our Master Jesus Christ. The act of judging happens when, after having discerned a person’s behavior is unholy, we then pile on with pronouncements and condemnations, whether out loud or silently in our heart. We see such a person as inferior to us, that is, we imitate the Pharisee instead of the tax collector. We put ourselves in the place of God. As Saint James writes in his epistle: “There is one lawgiver and judge, He who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you that you judge your neighbor?” It is very often the case that when we judge another person, we have projected our own sins and inadequacies onto the other person, and in judging that person, we therefore judge ourselves. We have not taken the log out of our own eye; we have not confessed our sins to God and received sacramental absolution. It takes restraint and it takes faith to live in Christian community with our eyes open. Ultimately we are commanded by Christ to trust God entirely despite witnessing sinful behavior in the community. And this is a mystery, the mystery of life in community. We are to suffer, in community, knowing that we are sinners and every person in the parish is a sinner; suffering that we sometimes sin, and they sometimes sin; we are to endure the faults and sins of others. The Church is a hospital for sinners, not a club for the spiritual elite. Jesus said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.” Because of His voluntary sacrifice of Himself on the Cross, which is love in perfect expression, ultimate expression, we have the Eucharist to feed us, to love us, and to give life to our community. All of the baptized are fed and loved by Christ in the Eucharist, so that being in communion with the baptized through Holy Communion, His relationship with us is profound and intimate. Because of the Eucharist, God can become our life, and all of our life can become His life lived through us and through our body. In community, we must ever remember that God already knows everyone’s sins, that God already knows everyone’s heart. In community we must ever remember that God is at work in the heart and mind of every person to bring them to repentance, to confession, to humility and honesty before Him. Within the mystery of God is the mystery of trusting Him that He is in control, that unto Him all hearts are open, all desires known, and from Him no secrets are hid. An open secret in parish life is that there are never easy answers to people who habitually act poorly in a parish community. While we are to discern what this behavior is, and never approve of it or condone it, we are not to do God’s work of judgment, but instead abide in the mysterious work of God, which happens in community through the community’s life of prayer and thanksgiving to God: that is, through its eucharistic life. In the words of the prophet Jeremiah: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning.” Because Christ’s mercies upon sinners never cease, nor should ours. “I came that they may have life,” Jesus said, “and have it abundantly”—through the same Jesus Christ, Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe [https://frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

The English Spirituality of Martin Thornton

I am pleased to report that the 2026 Breck Conference on Martin Thornton was a great success! Attendance was high—the most attendees of any Breck Conference to date. The pre-conference, which I co-led, delved deeply into aspects of Martin Thornton’s life and pastoral and ascetical writing. The conference had superb presentations by the speakers, focusing on matters pertaining to four Thornton texts: English Spirituality, The Purple Headed Mountain, Pastoral Theology, and Christian Proficiency. The conference concluded with a robust panel discussion between the speakers and the attendees. All the while the gathering worshiped according to the Prayer Book pattern: daily Matins, Mass, and Evensong, with fellowship at meals and elsewhere. My own talk looked at the text English Spirituality, but that was preceded by a long look at Martin’s biography, which is about 2/3rds of the talk. Besides covering the major touch-points of his life, I also looked at his "Beech Tree Experience” of God in his late 20s, and took a deep dive into its significance for his Christian identity, his priesthood, and his writing. The rest given to the theological context of English Spirituality and aspects of the book itself: how to understand the book in terms of purpose and genre, how to use the English school of spirituality, the significance of Margery Kempe to this school, and Thornton’s proposal for devout experiment to synthesize the ascetical teachings of Margery Kempe, Jeremy Taylor, and Hugh of St Victor. I am grateful to Father Greg Peters, the Breck Conference Chair, for his leadership and for co-leading the pre-conference with me. Likewise I am grateful to Bishop Stephen Scarlett, Father Cole Hartin, and Father Thomas Buchan for their talks. The conference papers will be published in a book that is aimed to be released by the end of 2026. There you will be able to find and read the final text of my talk and those of the other speakers. Meanwhile, let us continue to learn from Martin Thornton, the great Anglican theologian— Let us pray that, if it be God’s will, the fama sanctatis (reputation for holiness) of Martin Thornton grow by His grace, that the Church may one day more fully recognize what the faithful already sense in their hearts, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe [https://frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]