Today’s gospel is another in a series of profound metaphors which the church remembers about Jesus ministry. Jesus has been teaching the people and the disciples have gone off on a boat leaving Jesus by himself to pray. A storm comes up and Jesus walks on the water towards disciples boat. Jesus calls them in the mist of the storm to follow him, and in faith Peter begins to walk on the water toward him in answer to Jesus’ call. However, as the storm increases, Peter doubts himself and starts to sink. Jesus recues him. It is a powerful metaphor on many levels.
Jesus is the new Moses leading the people out of their daily pain and suffering. Unlike Moses, Jesus does not have to have the seas of life parted. If we faithfully walk with Jesus in eternal faith and in total love we can walk over the trials and tribulations of life. But we’re human, and like Peter sometimes our faith gets diminished and we start to sink. If we call out to Jesus he will reach out his hand and take us through the tribulation. We are never alone!
We are in a time of great testing and tribulation in our own culture and in the world. We are facing a doomsday scenario due to human made Climate Change. This is compounded by the pandemic and responses to the pandemic around the world. People are losing hope and are becoming depressed, angry with violence and hatred bubbling up. Jesus calls us to have faith and love response. We are called to love not just those who we know, who we are friendly with but the whole world. We are to reach out to strangers and people whom we normally wouldn’t associate recognizing that the love of Jesus is alive in them as well as in us. In these challenging times we must keep our focus on Jesus and his nonviolent approach to life with inclusive love and care and from which we will find our hope and the solution to our needs. May God bless us as we walk over the troubled Waters of our present time.
