The priest, the Bishop and the Pope must be within the Church; with the Pope as the captain of the boat and the bishops and the priests as his lieutenants.
We all know that there are three stages in the growth of the Church in her history leading to the Second Coming. These three images had been mystically shown in the three boat incidents in the lives of the apostles. The first is during the storm wherein the apostles themselves were still being trained and they have not gone fishing. The second is the Genesareth fishing trip where this time they lowered the net and hauled in all kinds of fishes (both good and bad) and where the net was in danger of breaking and the boat was in danger of sinking. The third is the Tiberias fishing trip where this time they lowered the net specifically on the right side, where they caught 153 fishes and there was no danger of the net breaking nor the boat sinking.
Obviously, the first fishing trip was an image of the Church at her beginnings where the apostles were still being trained. The Genesareth trip was when the apostles had entered the Church through Faith and began to get new members into the Catholic Church, getting all kinds of people and experiencing heresies and schisms as shown by the breaking net and the near-sinking of the boat.
But I would like to focus our attention on the third fishing trip in Lake Tiberias which occurred after the Resurrection of Christ. The scene was a boat with seven apostles who had lowered the net on the right side (where the predestined are) and had caught 153 large fishes (symbol of those who have perfectly learned and obeyed the 10 commandments, have attained the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity and had perfected these virtues with the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit) and was now approaching the end of the sea, the beach (the end of the world) to deliver all to Christ who was standing on the shore. This is the image of the Catholic Church when approaching the end times, prelude to the Second Coming of Christ. Christ was on the shore (in heaven) waiting to receive the whole Church. There were seven apostles. Not to discredit the absent apostles, the mystical meaning is that the bishops and priests in the Boat were with faith, hope and Charity perfected by the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, i.e. they were all ‘perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect’ as symbolized by the number seven. They have reached the perfection of Charity and are all contemplatives. Those ruling the Church at this time are leaders who had undergone the 8 stages mentioned by St. Thomas of Aquinas as required before one can preach. They must have contemplated the truths of the Church and, therefore, have the gift of wisdom, an almost perfect knowledge of Christ’s teachings possible to man on earth. The Church have to be perfect at this time because there is no purgatory after the second coming.
Fr. Joseph Ratzinger, wrote a thesis on the ‘Theology of the History according to St. Bonaventure.’ This was a treatise on how the Church looks like from her beginning up to the end of the world corresponding to the 7 days of creation. The Church look different during each day of creation but is essentially the same like a child who grows up is essentially the same child but has some differences. St. Bonaventure thought that the Church was in the 6th day of Creation during his time, that is, just before the 7th day, the day of rest, which is the Second Coming. His description of the Church prior to the end times was perfect. And he thought that his times was the End times, as every good christian should think. But it was not yet.
Pope Benedict had studied this description and feels that the Church today is on the 6th day by analyzing the events of his early priesthood up to the present. He wants to be sure because he is supposed to head and guide this ship. And in announcing the ‘Year of the Priest’ he is in fact guiding the Church based on this assumption. The words he used in the ‘Year of the Priest’ is taken almost verbatim from his thesis. His actuation and movements shows him guiding the boat in Lake Tiberias, the Church, towards the shore where Christ is waiting in heaven. And he is clearly pushing the Church to be what the 153 fishes symbolized as clearly shown in his ‘Year of St. Paul’ but more so in his ‘Year of the Priest.’ In any classical treatise on Mystical theology, the 153 fishes (the members of the Church) caught by the apostles are clearly those who have reached the perfect life or the perfection of Charity, i.e. contemplation. This is the only boat that will enter heaven.
Like most of St. John’s writings his Gospel is difficult to understand, specially chapter 21 where the Tiberias fishing trip was discussed. Here he hinted that he is writing this at the end of his Gospel because after this there is nothing else that follows, sort of saying that after this chapter it is the end of the world. But the same John continues to write the Book of Revelation which describes the details of the end times. And both the book of Revelation and the Gospel of John are the readings in the Masses after Easter up to before Ascension where the Church of the end times is described.
After describing the Church prior to the Second coming as portrayed in the fishing trip in lake Tiberias, John further describes it in the Book of Revelation, which St. Bonaventure picked up having studied St. Augustine’s commentary of the Gospel of St. John and enriched by his knowledge of the original spirit of St. Francis. John writes about the image of the Woman of the Apocalypse who went to the desert. Now we have a confusing picture that we have to put together; a boat calmly sailing towards the shore packed with 153 sizable fishes and a Woman with two giant wings being flown to the desert to a place specially prepared by God. Bonaventure was able to integrate these two biblical figures and described how the Church and her members would look like. Fr. Ratzinger saw this, too, and noted it in his thesis. Now he wants to study further his thesis and actually put his finger on this Church where the members will have the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity perfected by the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit and, therefore, would all be contemplatives in their knowledge of the Catholic religion. It is a picture of a boat of 7 sailors hauling 153 fishes being perfected in the desert (a little similar to the picture above.) In the Holy Father’s search I am afraid he might by-pass many Dioceses, parishes, religious congregations, seminaries and many so-called catholic organizations.