Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-12-09
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To Be Thereafter
By DANIEL-ROPs
Chapter
AS soon as the task which He had under
taken was due to expand, it was necessary
for Jesus to have helpers. Even the events
of the first few weeks, rapidly as they had
developed, had required definite appeal
to His companions.
The men whom He had called on the
banks of the Jordan had become His
friends; they had to be consecrated as His
disciples, by His will and by their own &C
This is the sixth Of Is chapters condensed from the
book, "Jesus ond His Times" by Henry Donel-Rops.
distinguished French outhor ond Bible historian, 1916
winner Of the 6rond Prize for Literature Of the Acod
emie Froncose. Here the story Of Jesus is set forth
against the bockeound Of life in the Palestine OF
His time.
ceptance. Later on they were to be raised to
the apoStolate; they would be invested by
Jesus with supernatural powers and the
Church would be born.
st. Luke places the appeal for disciples
at this juncture, which seems logical be-
cause by His teaching in the synagogues
and by the miraculous manifestations, Jesus
had shown those who were to follow Him
the nature of the work to which they were
to be called God does not seek to take men
by surprise and the Church has always
froWned on sudden vocations dictated solely
by emotions. 1t is only to the soul fortified
by preparation and knowing its way and
its strength that the spirit gives the SUI
preme impulse.
The Gospel shows us this supreme i'm
pulse at work when it tells us how Simon,
Andrew, John and James were claimed by
Jesus with sovereign and imperiouS au-
thority how they obeyed and followed Him,
leaving everything
Three Knew Him Well
Three of these four already knew him
well, since the days at Bethabara and the
return to Jerusalem. The fourth, James,
probably met Jesus when He made his first
journey to the shores of the lake, and he
had certainly heard his brother John speak
of Him
But none Of them had so far decided to
renounce everything; to set out upon that
other worldly adventure where He who
saves his life must lose it. This is shown
by the fact that they had left the enthusi-
astic crowd importuning the Master and had
gone back to their work, mindful OF their
material interests. They would be mending
their nets, perhaps with the mesh pegged
out on the ground just as We can see men
doing by the shore of the lake today, and
at night they would go out fishing. All this
had not yet been renowned for God.
Then it was that Jesus called them.
There are plenty of places today along
the Basque coast, around Sicily, even still
on the Lake of Galilee where nets, boats
and fishing tackle are shared by a group
of associates like Zebedee, his sons and
their friends.
Even their method. which produced the
miracle, is still followed: The chabakah
or cast-net, the circular net which is rolled
around the left arm while the right arm
launches it with a deft motion which drops
down the weighted end.
We can still see the fishing smacks slowly
leaving the shore with the mehatten,
vertical nets weighted at the bottom and
pegged out with floats at the top, to entrap
the shoals of fish which will come in during
the night
Lake Still Rich in Fish
The lake, then as now, abounded in fish.
Many of the species of fish were very like
our own, perch, carp, and a variety of pike;
others were more exotic, like the caracinus
which carries its young in its mouth, and
which is still called "St. Peters fish" or the
weeping fish" because it is supposed to
bring i'll luck. There is also that curious
fish which is supposed to come from the
Nile by subterranean and submarine chan
nels. In the bay between Ain Tabgah and
Magdala, the junction of the ice-cold
waters brought down by the Jordan when
the SHOWS of Mount Hermon melt and the
hot springs Of Capernaum discharged by
seven eStuaries, produces conditions an
alogouS to those in Newfoundland: great
accumulation of plankton and hence an
abundance of fish
We can imagine the scene. 1t will be early
morning, for by the end of May midday is
too hot for work Beneath the white mist,
which has barely lifted, the lake is a pale
gray and the wash of the fishing boats a
silver simmer. The mountains are cobalt
blue which reflects the oncoming of the sun.