Matthew 14:22-33, Today’s Gospel story of Jesus walking on the water is filled with symbolism and echoes of the divine in the Old Testament. Most immediately the story of the boat in the storm is the manifestation of the Church’s struggles in the first days of her existence and down through history. Likewise, the episode with Peter faltering is an expression of the basic human experience of being totally vulnerable.
Peter is bold and adventurous in his cry out to Jesus, “If it is you Lord, command me to come to you on the water.” (Mt 14:28) Peter begins his walk but reality grabs hold of his weak faith. As Peter faces his moment of truth and begins to sink, his cry, “Lord, save me!” (Mt.14: 30), expresses the naked and unfiltered truth of our humanity. In the end, we are totally dependent on God.
Jesus says, “Do not be afraid!” (Mt. 14:27). This phrase is one of the most common in all of Scripture. It is uttered over two hundred times in the Bible. Each time it reveals the presence of a saving and compassionate God. To call it a statement of comfort is very short of the mark. It reveals a God profoundly engaged in the human struggle with the power of healing and deliverance. In today’s episode as an example, Peter ends up back in the boat rather than at the bottom of the sea.
We all have our, “Lord, save me!” moments. They tend to be fewer but more intense as the years pass by. In the end, there is a slowly growing clarity that we are truly in the storm and we are about to sink.
The reality of the need for Jesus grows in our heart. It might be health crisis, a child on drugs, the loss of a loved one, the consequences of an economy out of our control, or simply the relentless process of ageing. Today the entire nation of Somalia cries out from the horror of their famine. Whatever the situation, these events are all down payments on the ultimate human experience, our mortality. The depth of the cry, “Lord, save me!”, becomes more intense and more dominating. At the same time, the need for Jesus’ hand reaching out gets clearer and stronger and incredibly more important.
I want to return to my favorite Carmelite saint, St. Teresa of Avila, to make a clear conclusion from today’s story. Teresa says the story of her life is the story of God’s mercy. By this she means that when she had arrived at the deepest and clearest moment of her life, her “Lord, save me!” moments taught her what it meant to be a creature. She embraced the fact of her reality as creature because for her it meant she was cradled in the loving hands of a gracious Creator revealed in her great friend and Savior, Jesus Christ. In the end God’s limitless mercy is her victory.
It is a journey for us to know that our life also is, in its final expression, the story of God’s mercy. That, indeed, is a beautiful truth as Peter found out in today’s Gospel passage.
