“Catching” is used in a variety of ways in the Bible, both positive and negative. Thieves get caught; the Egyptians caught up with the Children of Israel at the Red Sea; a ram got caught in a thicket for Abraham to sacrifice instead of sacrificing Isaac. In a more positive sense, Jesus caught Peter when Peter was walking on water and started to sink, and the baby in Revelation was caught up to heaven before the dragon could eat him.
In all these cases, both positive and negative, Swedenborg says being caught represents a communication and even conjunction between spiritual states. Sometimes it means higher states get ensnared in the falsity and evil of lower states; sometimes it means higher states reach out to and elevate lower ones by sharing deeper truths and describing more exquisite desires for good.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 9144
9144. ‘And catches hold of thorns’ means which spreads into falsities. This is clear from the meaning of ‘catching hold of’, when said of anger that arises from an affection for evil, as spreading into and thus setting alight; and from the meaning of ‘thorns’ as falsities, dealt with below.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 4124
4124. ‘And he caught up with him on mount Gilead means a kind of joining together was thereby effected. This is clear from the meaning of ‘catching up with’ as a joining together, and from the meaning of ‘mount Gilead’ as good involved at the first stage of the joining together, dealt with above in 4117; so that ‘he caught up with him on mount Gilead’ means a kind of joining together.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 8155
8155. ‘And they overtook them encamping close to the sea’ means communication around the region of hell where falsities arising from evils are present. This is clear from the meaning of ‘overtaking’ as communication, for in the spiritual sense ‘overtaking’, or catching up with, describes an influx through which communication takes place, in this instance of the falsities arising from evil of those meant by ‘the Egyptians’ with those meant by ‘Israel’ (the fact that communication there is meant is clear from the temptation they first underwent at that place, which is described in what follows; every temptation comes about through influx from the hells, and so through communication, 8131); from the meaning of ‘encamping’ as arrangements of truth and good by the Lord for undergoing temptations, 8103, 8130, 8131; and from the meaning of ‘the sea’, here ‘the Sea Suph’, as the hell which contains the falsities arising from evil of those who are ruled by faith separated from charity and lead a life of evil, 8099, 8137, 8148.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2831
2831. ‘Behind [him] caught in a thicket’ means entangled in natural knowledge. This is clear from the meaning here of ‘caughtin’ as being entangled in, and from the meaning of ‘a thicket’ or fan entanglement’ as factual knowledge, to be dealt with in what follows.
Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 5006
5006. And she caught hold of him in his garment. That this signifies that truth not spiritual applied itself to the ultimate of spiritual truth, is evident from the representation of Potiphar’s wife, of whom these things are said, as being truth natural not spiritual (n. 4988); from the signification here of “to catch hold of” as being to apply itself; and from the signification of a “garment,” as being truth (n. 1073, 2576, 4545, 4763), here the ultimate of spiritual truth, which in this state is Joseph’s, for “Joseph” here is good spiritual natural (n. 4988, 4992). That it is the truth of this good with which truth natural not spiritual wished to be conjoined, is plain from the series of things in the internal sense.