The pure man should not be deceived as to what
sort of company he was in! 'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O
Lord!' I would I could clearly behold with my mind's eye what he
then saw in Jesus that drew from him that cry! fle knew him for the
Messiah: what was the working of the carpenter upon the fisherman
that satisfied him of the fact? Would the miracle have done it but
for the previous talk from the boat to the people? I think not.
Anyhow St. Peter judged himself among the sinners, and we may be
sure that if these fishers had been self-satisfied men, they would
not have left all and gone after him who called them. Still it would
hardly seern that it was specially as sinners that he did so. Again,
did not men such as the Lord himself regarded as righteous come to
him--Nicodemus, Nathaniel, the young man who came running and
kneeled to him, the scribe who was not far from the kingdom, the
centurion, in whom he found more faith than in any Jew, he who had
built a synagogue in Capernaum, and sculptured on its lintel the pot
of manna? These came to him, and we know he was ready to receive
them. But he knew such would always come drawn of the Father; they
did not want much calling; they were not so much in his thoughts
therefore; he was not troubled about them; they were as the ninety
and nine, the elder son at home, the money in the purse.
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