Father Christopher Zugger

9^th Sunday, 1 Corinthians 3: 9-17 and Matthew 14:22-34

This event happens right after Jesus has fed the thousands of people in the wilderness. The disciples are sailing to Gennesaret but Jesus wants to go and pray alone. The Sea of Galilee is nearly four and a half miles wide. Saint Mark says of this that they were “in the middle of the sea,” so they are far from land, and Matthew tells us that it was during the fourth watch of the night: i.e., between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. So, these experienced fishermen have spent most of the night stuck in a windstorm, trying to cross the sea and failing to do so.

Per usual, Peter is the impulsive one in the boat, the boat that to this day is used as a symbol of the Church, and is the only one brave enough to call out to this apparition and then to walk on the waters. Christ’s answer to all of them when they are panicking, Ego eimi is important: It is I is better rendered as I AM  or HE WHO IS. He uses the name of God from Exodus chapter 3, verse 14 where God says to Moses “I AM WHO AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.” These are the words that are so often inscribed in the halo around Jesus’ head in three Greek letters in icons, Ὁ ὬΝ emphasizing to us that He is the Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity, the Eternal Word, the Logos of God. He is declaring to them His full divinity, an outrageous statement, except here He is, walking atop the waves of a very stormy sea, out in the very middle of it all, walking to them far from the shore.

For Matthew, and for the apostles that scary night, the image that came to all of them was this, from Psalm 107, and this is why when Peter and Jesus get into the boat, they worship Jesus.

The psalm reads like this:    Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters; they saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep,  For he commanded, and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves  of the sea./  They mounted up to heaven, they went down to the depths;  their courage melted away in their evil plight / they reeled and staggered like drunken men, and were at their wits’ end.  Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress;  he made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.

Then they were glad because they had quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven.  Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works  to the sons of men!

So two things to consider here:

1. Peter, James, John, and Andrew were all fishermen, who had been through many a storm. But they were just as scared and worn out as the other apostles, and they knew that no one could walk on water in the middle of the Sea of Galilee. All of the apostles would know that psalm, and that moment when Jesus puts Peter into the boat and comes over the side is the moment when they kneel down to worship Jesus as God they are fulfilling those words: Then they were glad because they had quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven.  Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works  to the sons of men! They knew that Jesus really was I AM WHO AM.
2. Peter was fine on the stormy waves until he looked around and realized fully what he had done. He could walk on the waves toward Jesus, he could step atop the water exactly as Jesus was doing, he was in the same state as Jesus, as long as he looked only at Jesus. Look around at the messy world and get caught up in the sins and brokenness of our stormy world, and we will most definitely fall down and risk drowning spiritually.

Saint Paul writes in the epistle from First Corinthians, chapter 3,  today that No one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. And in verse 17 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?

As long as we keep Jesus Christ and His teachings as our foundation, all is well. As long as we remember that the Holy Spirit literally is living in us and among us, all is well. If I am rooted in solid Catholic teaching, by reading Scripture; by studying good theology; by participating in the programs offered in our parish, in the local parishes, on the internet; by being people who pray and turn to God regularly, every day, throughout the day – then all is well. Like Peter walking on the waves, we will be fine, no matter how crazy the world gets, no matter what sins I think about committing, no matter how foolishly I am tempted to act.

Remember that even though the apostles worship Jesus at this moment in the boat, even though they all recognized that indeed He was the living incarnation of God, of the one who said I AM WHO AM on Mount Sinai, when the Passion took place all fled. Only the youngest, the teenager John, only he would stay by the side of the Incarnate God Who willingly shed blood for us, who willingly endured the humiliation and thirst, Who willingly died for us. So just as our faith can be shaken, so was theirs. Just as we can abandon our foundational faith sometimes, so did they. But after the resurrection, Jesus did not rebuke them or punish them. Instead He breathed on them and poured out His spirit on them. And suddenly, once again, all was well.

These are readings that should give us tremendous comfort in hard, challenging, scary moments of sin, or fear, or just plain old spiritual exhaustion. Christ waits for us, extends his hand to us. He is always ready to give us His pierced hand, pierced on the cross for love of us, to save us from Satan’s power and to bring us closer to His heart and into the embrace of the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit. Let us truly rejoice in that reality in this Liturgy today, and give thanks to the Lord of Lords for loving us so much. Let us ask Him for the grace to show that love to our stumbling world that is filled with so many storms, and to go forward in the power of the Spirit, to give that world its true safe harbor in Christ’s Church.