Tuesday in the Thirteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 4, 2023

Matthew 8, 23-27

As Jesus got into a boat, his disciples followed him. Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he was asleep. They came and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” He said to them, “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?” Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm. The men were amazed and said, “What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey?”

July 4 marks the memorial of St. Elizabeth of Portugal, and it is also the feast of the Old Testament Prophets Hosea and Haggai.

Matthew places the miracle of the calming of the sea just after he records the Sermon on the Mount, which leads to the idea that this occurred early in the Lord’s Public Life, even before Matthew was called to be an Apostle (cf. Matthew 99, 9). Mark also places this event early in his Gospel.  Luke places it later, even after the sinful woman anoints the Lord at the Pharisee’s house.  Probably Jesus performed this miracle later in his career than earlier.  It should be recalled that Matthew has less interest in strict chronology than in theme, and his account of the miracle fits in the aftermath of the healing of the centurion’s slave, of Peter’s mother-in-law, and a statement that Jesus cured a great many people who suffered from illness or demonic possession.  St. Mark wrote his Gospel from St. Peter’s reminiscences, so according to the order in which Peter spoke of his experiences with Jesus.  

In Matthew’s Gospel, the miracle of the calming of the sea comes as part of a series of miracles showing the Lord’s authority and power: power over both the natural and supernatural worlds.  This, in turn, shows the Father’s approval of his Son’s teaching contained in the Sermon on the Mount, which preceded this series of miracles. 

“As Jesus got into a boat, his disciples followed him.”  St. Mark gives a specific time when the Lord got into the boat to cross the Sea of Galilee: it was on the evening of the day on which he told the Parable of the Sower.  Both Matthew and Luke are less definite.  In their Gospels, Jesus embarked on the boat after some time had passed since the events that were described as coming before.  “Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves.”  The Greek word translated here as “violent storm” is seismos, which can also mean earthquake.  This was an unusually violent storm.  The Greek word translated here as “swamped” means “to be enveloped” or “to conceal”.  The Greek gives a vivid sense of a fishing boat at sea suddenly blasted by a storm of ferocious power.  The Apostles could hardly have seen each other in the blinding rain and their attempts to bail proved pitiful.

“He was asleep.”  Considering how the boat was being hurtled about by the waves and the rain and sea were capsizing it, we ought to marvel that the Lord slept.  The fact that he slept bears testimony to his exhaustion from his relentless efforts in preaching and healing.  We should marvel more that he kept this up every day for three years.  We will never know how much our Redeemer suffered for us.

“Lord, save us! We are perishing!”  This cry may have been motivated more by panic than by faith, but it does amount to a prayer.  It is a prayer we ourselves have uttered probably more than once.  “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?”  It is as though the Lord expected them to simply ride out the storm in all its fury.  And that is what he did expect.  They should have kept bailing and struggling, and he would have protected him.  The Lord wills for us to take some part in our own salvation and so he urges us on to perform good works and to grow in our faith.  If we do this, he will protect us.  The Lord rebuked the Apostles for having little faith in order to teach them that their faith had not attained the fullness that they may have thought.  He makes it clear to them that they have as yet far to go.

“Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm.”  As sudden as the squall had arisen, so suddenly did it end.  The Apostles, as they gazed around, may have thought of how God bounded the sea in the beginning: “Who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?  When I made the cloud the garment thereof,

and thick darkness a swaddling-band for it, and prescribed bounds for it, and set for it bars and doors, and said, Hitherto shall you come, but no further: and here shall your proud waves be stayed?” (Job 38, 8–11).

We can understand this miracle as telling us to keep calm when the circumstances of life turn against us, or when we are persecuted for our faith, but also when we suffer inner turmoil and confusion.  Even when it seems the Lord is absent or asleep, he is there, protecting those who trust in him.