Two weeks ago, we finished reading the Sermon
of Jesus in parables. Last Sunday we should have started the narrative section
of the fourth part of Matthew’s gospel, which is about the Church considered as
the first-fruits of the kingdom of heaven; but we celebrated the
transfiguration of the Lord. If we had celebrated the Sunday liturgy, we would
have read the account of the miracle of the loaves. Today we read the
continuation of that story. Jesus dismisses the crowds and strangely orders his
disciples to precede him to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Why? Jesus
needed to stay alone for a while. Evidently, the experience of that day had
been particularly stressful for him. Besides the teaching and the feeding of the
five thousand, we know from the gospel of John that people wanted to make him
king. I think that something like that would not be easy to manage for anybody.
It must have taken a lot of time for Jesus to convince the crowds to leave him
alone and go home. So, there was need of a moment of solitude, silence and
prayer to metabolize that experience.
Meanwhile the disciples had covered a good
stretch of their crossing; but there was a storm, and the boat was tossed about
by the waves. Towards the end of the night, Jesus appears walking on the sea.
Instead of rejoicing, his disciples get frightened and mistake Jesus for a
ghost. At this point, Jesus identifies himself and tries to reassure them. Then
Peter, as usual, steps forward and asks for the impossible: “Lord, if it is
you, command me to come to you on the water.” Jesus allows him and he starts
his walk on the sea; but he soon begins to sink, and screams for help. Jesus
stretches out his hand, catches him and scolds him for doubting. When they get
into the boat, the storm calms down. After seeing what happened, the disciples cannot
but say: “Truly, you are the Son of God” (Vere Filius Dei es!)
How can the disciples come to this conclusion?
First, they see him walking on the sea. This means that he has power over the
waters. In the Old Testament, it is God who controls the waters; so, Jesus has
a divine power. Second, when Jesus makes himself known, he says: “It is I,”
literally, “I am,” which is the ineffable name of God. Third, when Jesus get
into the boat, the wind ceases. On a similar occasion, when Jesus had calmed a
seastorm, the disciples had said: “What sort of man is this, whom even the
winds and the sea obey?” (Mt 8:23-27) Now they themselves answer that question:
He is the Son of God.
So, this walking of Jesus on the water is a revelation of his deepest
identity. But we should not confine ourselves to seeing in it just a miraculous
event happened two thousand years ago. The gospel is not just a report of past
events; it is the account of something present. The gospel does not speak only
of Jesus and his disciples two thousand years ago, but even of his disciples at
any time. When Jesus tells his disciples to precede him to the other side of
the sea, we could see in this command the mission of the Church through
history. Meanwhile, Jesus has gone up on the mountain to pray: Jesus has
ascended into heaven to intercede for us. This does not mean that he has
abandoned his Church in her journey across history; it is that his disciples
just cannot see him. But it is not necessary to see the Lord for him to be
present. We have heard in the first reading the experience of Elijah: he just heard
the sound of a gentle breeze, and understood that he was before the Lord. The boat
is tossed about by the waves of a stormy sea: the Church has always to face the
assaults of the hostile forces of the world. It is at those moments that Jesus
reveals himself to his Church and reassures her; but the disciples often do not
recognize him and mistake him for a ghost. Peter asks Jesus to allow him to go
to him amid waves and gets this grace; but he is a human being like us; there
are moments when he doubts and begins to sink. Thank God, there is the hand of
Jesus ever ready to catch him and save him from the water. When Jesus gets into
the boat, that is, when he is present in his Church, there is calm. Only in
Jesus can the Church experience peace. He is the Lord of history; nothing is
beyond his control. To accept him into our boat, it is enough to acknowledge
his identity: “Truly, you are the Son of God.”
Q
