We Are Also in the Boat

(9th Sunday after Pentecost) (August 21, 2005)

Today’s reading from the Gospel according to St. Matthew is a familiar story. Having miraculously fed five thousand men, as well as women and children, with five loaves and two fish, our Lord sends His disciples ahead by boat, while He goes by Himself to a mountaintop to pray. As night falls, the boat, in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, is being tossed by wind and waves. In the fourth watch, our Lord comes to His disciples, walking on the water; but they mistake Him for a spirit, not recognizing Him – hardly surprising, given that He is walking on the water! He calls to encourage them; and St. Peter, filled with excitement, says, “Lord, if You will, command me to come to you on the water.” Our Lord says, “Come, “ and St. Peter steps out of the boat and walks on the water – at least, while his attention is fixed on the Lord. As soon as he turns his attention to the action of wind and waves, he begins to sink, and cries out for the Lord to save him. He does so, while commenting, “O ye of little faith, why did you doubt?” The disciples worship Him when He enters the boat, for they recognize that He is, indeed, the Son of God.

That’s a dramatic story, with very vivid images. I recall one summer many years ago, boating with friends up on Canyon Lake, on the Verde River. It’s a calm, quiet lake; or, it was until a strong thunderstorm developed; and, as the wind grew stronger, the surface of the lake was stirred up, and soon we were facing waves of two to three feet in height as we raced back to the dock ahead of the storm. I can appreciate what the disciples must have been experiencing, out on a much larger body of water for a longer period of time, and at night. In particular, imagine what might have been going through the minds of those who were not experienced sailors; and Peter and Andrew and James and John, all experienced fishermen, must have been busy trying to keep the boat safe and on course. You can’t earn your living on the water, as fishermen do, without knowing of friends and colleagues lost by shipwreck and storm, washed overboard, and drowned. To me, this makes Peter’s act of getting out of the boat all that more significant. He had to know the risks involved, and yet his love for the Lord, and his faith in Him – and Peter did have faith, or else he could never have tried to step out of the boat – overcome his fears; at least, for a moment.

On one level, this story reveals the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, the master of the earthly realm, able even to walk on water. It would probably help us to remember that we are also disciples, followers of the Lord. This means that we are also in the boat.

The fathers tell us that one way we can understand this story is to see that the boat in which the disciples are traveling is the world; while the waves are our passions, troubled by the winds, the actions of the evil spirits, the demons; and the night stands for our ignorance. Unlike the disciples in the story, we have Christ, the Light of the world, dwelling in us; and yet every time we choose to follow our passions, our sinful desires, instead of the ways of God, we blind ourselves to the Light, and choose to dwell in darkness. Because we do not seek the light as we should – by prayer, and fasting, by giving alms, and by struggling to overcome our passions – we are ignorant, and we do not always recognize our Lord when He draws near to us. As a result, we do not take the step of faith that would lead us to become more than who we are, and that would show forth Christ in our lives.

Brothers and sisters, called to be saints: Do you have faith? Do you believe? Is Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, Who has died in our place, and risen from the dead, trampling down death by death? If we truly believe that we are loved by God, and that He has saved us, and lives in us, and that He has given us power to be transformed more and more into His likeness, let us live in such a way that we show this belief, this trust, this faith, not only in what we say, but also in what we do. Let us pray; let us fast; let us give; and let us labor to replace our passions with the God-pleasing virtues. As we do so, we will find our thoughts and desires turning to Him, instead of clinging to the world; and we will be able to walk on the waves, no matter how great the storm – to the glory of God, and the salvation of souls.