A reading of the Gospel according to Matthew
14:22-33
After Jesus had fed the five
thousand, he made
the disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side, while he
dismissed the crowds. After
doing so, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening, he
was there alone.
Meanwhile, the boat was
far out to sea when the wind came up against them, and they were battered by
the waves. At about four o’clock in the morning, Jesus came toward them walking
on the water. The disciples were scared to death. They cried out in terror. “A
ghost!”
At once Jesus spoke to
them, “Courage, it is I. Do not be afraid.”
Peter spoke up and said,
“Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”
“Come!” Jesus said.
Jumping out of the boat,
Peter walked on the water to Jesus. But when he felt the strong the wind and
looked down at the waves churning beneath his feet, he lost his nerve and
started to sink. He
cried out, “Lord, save me!”
Immediately Jesus
stretched out his hand and caught him, and said to Peter,
“O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
The two of them, then,
climbed into the boat, and the wind died down. The disciples in the boat,
having watched the whole thing, worshiped Jesus, saying, “Truly,
you are the Son of God." The Gospel of the Lord.
You gotta love Peter; time and again he says the first thing that enters
his mind without thinking of the consequences. He is so big-hearted, impulsive,
brave and scared all at the same time, so human - like one of us.
When Jesus first met Peter after the big catch of fish, Peter said,
“Leave me, I am a sinner.” And Jesus replied, No, I caught you. “Do not be afraid.”
In today’s Gospel, Jesus says the same thing to the disciples when they
think he is a ghost. I imagine Jesus
sighing, “Oy vey,” exasperated that the disciples did not know him after all
they had witness in following him, and shouting through
the wind, “It’s ME, do not be afraid.”
When the storms of life threaten to overwhelm us, how is our faith? Can we be calm, trusting that Jesus will
catch us? Do we believe Jesus has
already saved us?
Peter’s sinking in the water can be thought of as a type of
baptism. Peter needed this dunking so he
would stopped floundering around and be calm in the storm; to not be
afraid.
A dunking can be jolting, or refreshing; renewing the mind, body and soul.
Every time I take a shower it’s like a mini-baptism as I sing to myself the
refrain from the blessing of the Baptismal Water at the Easter Vigil, “Water of
life, cleanse and refresh us. Raise us to life in Christ Jesus.”
In baptism, we were caught by Jesus.
Yet, we all still need a little dunking now and then to wash away our
doubts, water our faith and help us learn to trust God saves us.
God never promised that life would be like a day at the beach. On the contrary, Jesus assured his followers
a life full of hardship, but Jesus did promise to be with us always.
God lures us in when we remember God’s marvelous love. In times of troubled waters, have
faith. Look – We are floating in Love
and God will always throw us a line.
Have you ever had the opportunity to save a drowning person?
I did. We were at the public pool. I was about 11 when this toddler waddled over
from the baby pool and just plopped in the deep end right in front of me. I was sitting on the side and reached down and
caught her. When I brought her back to
her mother, she thanked me effusively. I
didn’t think much about it. It didn’t
call for any great heroics on my part, it was a simple thing to do.
I think God is like that: God is
simply there for us, saving us, loving us and will simply not let us go through
life alone.
God showed the depth of God’s love when Jesus humbly became a human like
one of us. We see Jesus’ heroics in the
Gospels: Jesus patiently endured
temptation, hunger and thirst; rejection of his miraculous deeds and words of
truth about God’s love; betrayal, abandonment by his disciples, torture… and
when Jesus was sinking into death on the cross he experienced the feeling of
abandonment by God. Yet, God was
holding Jesus, offering Jesus, “For God so loved the world that he gave His
only Son… God did not send the Son into
the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved
through him.” God simply has no
other way of being than to simply love us and hold us when we are sinking.
Maybe Peter had it right. Maybe
when we are brave and scared at the same time, we need to overcome our doubts
when we are sinking in the troubled waters and have the faith and audacity to
not be afraid to cry out, “Lord, save me!”
And Love will always catch us.
