19th Sunday in Ordinary Time. August 7th, 2011
You know, this Gospel reading is one of my favorites. I am sure most of us have seen paintings depicting this scene of Peter meeting Jesus out on the water (I myself have multiple depictions of this poignant scene). Peter is sinking as he is desperately grabbing for Jesus’ hand. Jesus, for His part, is very much in control as He calmly reaches out his hand to Peter. Jesus takes Peter’s hand and rebukes Peter for his lack of faith, “O man of little faith why did you doubt?”
It is easy for us to be hard on Peter and want to “rebuke” him as well for his lack of faith. The interesting thing about this story that we must remember, however, is that-- Peter got out of the boat. How many of us would do the same? You see in this boat, at this point in their relationship with Jesus and at different stages in their faith in Jesus, the twelve apostles represent the different types of people found in the Church today.
There were those apostles who said, “It’s a ghost, it is not true. In others words, they were content with mediocrity. These correspond with those in the Church today who, while being Catholic, just don’t want to be “too Catholic.” They are content with mediocrity with regards to their relationship with Jesus and His Church. So better to not rock the boat; they think, “maybe if we ignore Jesus, that is if we just do the minimum, just enough, he will go away and leave us alone.”
There were those apostle in the boat who knew it was truly Jesus walking on the water towards them; they wanted to go to Him, but they lacked confidence in Him. They saw the waves and they were afraid; the Gospel tells us the boat was beaten by the waves. These represent those in the Church today who want to want to walk on the water, that is follow Christ totally, but they are afraid of what it might cost them, what they might have to give up or to suffer. These persons may even give Jesus a lot, they just won’t give Him their all. They want to give Jesus everything, but are afraid he might just take it all. In the end, they don’t trust God totally.
Then, there was a least one disciple in the boat who didn’t care one way or the other. He was in the boat but not with Christ and the others. He coincides with those in the Church who are indifferent to the words and teaching of Jesus, given to us through the pope, and the bishops and priests in union with him. They say, “No pope, no bishop, and for sure no priest is going to tell me what to do.” In this, they show that they are indifferent to the very person of Christ who is truly present in the Church in the Holy Eucharist and who shepherds His people through the pastors of His Church. Like Judas, they feel it is every one else who needs to change and not them; they’re a good person after all. They refuse to see their need to chance, for repentance, and so refuse to see their need for God’s Divine Mercy in their soul.
Finally, there was the one who got out of the boat. It was Peter alone got out of the boat in the midst of the great wind and waves. How much confidence Peter must have had to get out of that boat in the first place. How much he must have loved Jesus to risk it all to walk on the water toward Jesus. And Peter did just that; he performed the miraculous-walking on water, that is until the gospel tells us, “he looked at the wind and began to sank...In other words, Peter took his eyes off of our Lord, and as a result Peter’s confidence waned; his faith grew weak.
Peter represents those souls in the Church today, who thou not perfect, see that Jesus is their Way, their Truth and their Life, and so take the risk and get out of the boat; they struggle to leave mediocrity behind in order to give themselves totally to Christ. They begin to trust Jesus more and more…even enough to “walk on water.” And even if they begin to sink they call out to the Lord as Peter did, “Lord Save Me!” And that is what Jesus does, he holds out His hand and says, “my child why did you doubt, have confidence in me’, and as in the gospel the winds cease, if not in the world, within the soul.
I think for most of us Catholics, if we are honest, we can admit that at different times in our faith life we have been like each one of the twelve in the boat. Yet, the important thing for us today is to recommit ourselves to the person of Christ and turn toward Him with greater faith, reach out to Him in great trust and cling to Him with greater love.
To do this we need to ask God to increase our faith that Jesus is still in the boat, that is He is still physically present in His Church through the Holy Eucharist. And then, we need to ask Him to help us to keep our eyes on His presence there. We need an increase in our faith that the Holy Eucharist is Jesus, Our Lord and our God, and adore, trust and love Him there.
In our spiritual life and in our everyday life (the two should never be separate) we can indeed follow Jesus anywhere, fully, if we just keep our eyes on Him. To often however, we take note of the wind and the waves, we see the dangers, the difficulties, and the sufferings and so we fail to keep looking at Jesus. In our relationship with Him, we then begin to count the cost of following Him totally, fully and absolutely in love, and so we take our eyes off of Him and begin to sink in to despair, despondency and even, God forbid, loss of faith and love.
Yet even so, if we just call out to him and return our gaze to Him, reach out to him through our adoration of Him, then He will grab us by the hand and save us from sinking; He will increase our faith, hope and love. And then with Jesus, and our eyes daily focused on Him, we can do anything He asks us to do. United to Him we can even do the miraculous, that is we can leave all behind in order to follow Christ and become great saints.
But we must keep our eyes on Jesus, not as some ideal, but as a divine person who is truly present in His Church. And we can keep our eyes on Jesus only if we adore His very Person in the Holy Eucharist both at Mass and outside of Mass. The more we adore Him there in faith, the more we can handle the great winds and waves of this present world and of the spiritual life; the more we trust Him the more we can overcome the tempestuous, temptations, passions, and persecutions of our age. And the more we love Him in the Holy Eucharist, the more closely we can be with Him always, united to Him in love, until He finally leads us to the safe harbor of eternity.
In the Holy Eucharist we have to remember Jesus, our Lord and our God, doesn’t manifest Himself to us in great and stupendous marvels, or speak to us in a thunderous voice, but He comes to us hidden in the smallness of a little white host, and He speaks to us in the silence of our hearts with the tiny whisper of His Divine Love. Yet, united to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, with our eyes focused on Him in adoration, trusting in Him completely and with hearts united to Him in love, listening to Him speak through His Church and accepting her teachings as His, we will never sink for He will unite us to Himself forever and ever.
It is the blessed Mother who will help us to keep our eyes always focused on Jesus through adoration of the Holy Eucharist, which is Him. And as a result of our adoration of her divine Son in the Holy Eucharist, she will help us to keep our eyes on Him during the events of our every day lives and so never lose hope. She will help us draw closer to the Sacred Heart of her Son in the Holy Eucharist and keep us there until we reach the safe harbor of eternity.
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