(Jeremiah 28: 1-17 / Psalm 119 / Matthew 14: 22-36)
After Jesus performed the miracle of multiplying the loaves and fish to feed 5,000 people, his disciples departed the area in a boat and left Jesus behind. It was night fall when they left and the waves on the sea were choppy. There wouldn’t have been very much moonlight to see by either, if a storm was brewing. It would have been a lot of hard work rowing their boat in the churning sea, against the waves, trying to get to the other side.
If you have ever taken a ride in a small boat against a heavy wind, then you know what the disciples were up against, except in their case all they had was the strength of their own arms and the oars in the boat. How tiring that must have been. Especially after a long day on the mountain with Jesus and the crowds. They were literally coming down from a mountain top experience. A lot of people in our modern times feel like this too, the next day after a retreat.
However, the disciples had already traveled three or four miles in the dark sea, when out of no where they saw Jesus walking on the water. It must have been a terrifying sight at first. They thought they were seeing a ghost coming toward them and was afraid of it. But, Jesus reassured them, “It is I. Do not be afraid.”
You can’t help but wonder why did Jesus do this? He could have left in the boat with the disciples when they first departed for Capernaum. It is also odd that the disciples would have left without him. We will never really understand why this happened but one thing is for certain, the power of God was profoundly present with Jesus that day. One large scale miracle wasn’t enough, because Jesus performed a second miracle just for his own disciples later that night.
There are many different ways of looking at this story in the gospel, but one of the ways might be that Jesus wanted his disciples, and us as well, to realize that life is a whole lot harder without him. The disciples were being tossed about on strong waves, rowing against the wind, and for all their struggling they may not have made much progress on their own. Jesus had compassion for them and wanted to make their journey a little easier. He had the power to see to it that they made it safely to the other shore. But, it wasn’t just his power to command the forces of nature that is the beautiful thing about this story, it’s that Jesus loved his disciples and didn’t want to see them have to struggle so hard on their journey. He brought them quickly and safely, to the other shore.
Jesus still has this power. He has the power to see to it that we make it safely through our life’s journey as well. With the Lord Jesus by our side, and as our guide, we can not lose our way. Sometimes life throws storms at us that seems to be more than we can handle. People get depressed over the circumstances in their lives and think that maybe it isn’t going to get any better. They can’t see the other side of the suffering they are going through. These struggles we all go through are so much more difficult without Jesus. He can make our load much lighter if we turn it over to him and trust that The Lord knows the right thing for us to do.
We trust in each other and pull together as families, in school, the workplace and as a parish, but really our journey is in the hands of the Lord. He alone is the guide for our lives. We can only do so much on our own and the struggles can become too difficult to bear, unless we rely on The Lord Jesus, especially through the sacraments of His church and through a regular prayer life.
Today is a good day to take a little time out of our busy day to regain the center of our lives. The center of our being should find its rest in the Lord Jesus. Prayer can be an oasis of peace against the storms of our every day life. We can regain a sense of who we are, but most importantly whose we are, with regular time outs for prayer.
It would be a good thing to seek a quiet place to pray today, in order to be close to Jesus and regain our awareness of who is really at the center of our lives. Until we regain Jesus as the center of our lives, the storms of life will randomly toss and turn us, and could even cause us to drown if we should ever let go of his hand. We should pray for the grace to never doubt Jesus’s ability to save us, even from ourselves.
