Monday in the Eighteenth Week of Ordinary Time, August 3, 2020

Matthew 14:22-36

Jesus made the disciples get into a boat and precede him to the other side of the sea, while he dismissed the crowds. After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening he was there alone. Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified. “It is a ghost,” they said, and they cried out in fear. At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter said to him in reply, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” After they got into the boat, the wind died down. Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying, “Truly, you are the Son of God.” After making the crossing, they came to land at Gennesaret. When the men of that place recognized him, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought to him all those who were sick and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak, and as many as touched it were healed. 

The events in this passage from the Gospel of St. Matthew occur after the feeding of the five thousand.  This enormous crowd was composed of those who “followed him on foot out of the cities” (Matthew 14, 13) at a location in Galilee.  One wonders how the Lord “dismissed” this multitude.  It seems likely that he did so with prayers and blessings, but the mystery of what he did lingers.  Afterwards, we find him “up on the mountain by himself to pray.”  Matthew emphasizes his solitude by adding, “When it was evening he was there alone.”  Calculating from the indications Matthew gives us, the Lord prayed between eight and ten hours, from sundown until an hour or so before dawn.  The Gospels make special note of Jesus spending time alone in prayer on three significant occasions: before the choosing of the Apostles, before his Passion and Death, and here, before he announces to Simon son of John that he will be the “rock” on which he will build his Church. 

Meanwhile, the Apostles are struggling in their boat, with the wind blowing hard against them. It would seem that they spent several hours on the water without making much progress.  At this point, they had worked steadily from dawn of the morning before, making their way across the countryside with Jesus, and then listening to him preach to them and the crowd, followed by their ministrations with the loaves and fish.  Now they labor away in the boat, seemingly making little progress.  At the fourth watch, an hour or two before dawn, the Lord Jesus “came toward them, walking on the sea.”  We ought to notice all the detail with which Matthew fills his account.  He tells us the times when things happen, how far the boat was from the shore, where Jesus went to pray, and that he was very specifically alone.  While Matthew liberally quotes the words of the Lord, he seldom devotes this kind of time to relating a narrative.  The scene, at which he was present, must have deeply impressed him very deeply so that it was still fixed in his mind years later.

When the exhausted Apostles looked out at the sea, with the faint glow of the sun beginning to appear in the east, “they were terrified. ‘It is a ghost,’ they said, and they cried out in fear.”  The word translated here as “ghost” is the Greek fantasma, which can mean “ghost”, “spirit”, or “apparition”.  It would be interesting to know what Hebrew word Matthew originally used, for it could have been simply the word for “spirit”, ruah, or another word which carried the implication of an evil spirit.  Whatever it may have been, in my opinion, the Apostles were seized with fright because they thought that this was a sign that they were going to die.  Just then, however, the Lord called out to them, his voice rising above the howl of the wind, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”  The unmistakable sound of the Lord’s voice had its effect on the Apostles and their fear turned to wonder at the sight of him walking on the water towards them.  Some distance existed between him and them when they first caught sight of him, and they watched him for some time as he drew nearer.  At length, only some yards separated them, and then Peter called out, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”  We might wonder ourselves at Peter’s impetuous desire.  It is almost as though Peter were testing the Lord’s power.  This is the same man who swore several times during the Last Supper that he would die for Jesus, and who hurtled out of the locked house when news came of the Resurrection.  This is the same Peter who, dazzled by the Transfiguration, offered to build tents for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah: “for he knew not what he said: for they were struck with fear”, as St. Mark comments, in Mark 9, 5.  Above all, Peter loves Jesus.  He is driven to serve Jesus, to give himself to Jesus. His zeal makes him an apt companion for the “sons of thunder”, James and John, who want to call fire down from heaven on those who oppose the Lord.  On this occasion, Peter simply wants to walk near his Lord, even on the sea.  

Jesus calls to him, “Come!”  Peter put stepped out of the boat onto the heaving water and began to walk.  He took several steps, and the Lord continued to walk to him as well.  And then, “when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened”.  That is, he took his eyes off the eyes of the Lord, and in that instant, the water opened up as though to swallow him.  He paddled ferociously with his arms, striving to keep from drowning, and he cried out for the Lord’s help.  A few more steps took Jesus to Peter’s position and the Lord’s hand, hardened by his many years as a carpenter, grabbed hold of thick forearm of the fisherman and pulled him up.  Together, they walked the remaining distance to the boat.  When they got on board, the Lord turned to him: “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”  Jesus here poses more of a rhetorical question than one to which he expected an answer.  He meant for Peter to ponder this carefully and to realize that for all his zeal, his faith still needed to grow.  Perhaps Matthew meant to contrast this incomplete faith with that shown by the citizens of Gennesaret, who believed they would be healed of their illnesses simply by touching the tassels of the Lord’s cloak.  Another possibility, though, is that Peter did not lack faith in Jesus, but in himself, that he could carry out the Lord’s command.  We recall how after a miraculous haul of fish, Peter said to Jesus, “Leave me Lord, for I am a sinful man” (Luke 5, 8).  Peter fostered no illusions about himself.  By the Lord asking “Why did you doubt?”, Peter would have remembered how the Lord called him as an Apostle despite knowing that he was a sinful man.  He would come to realize that his own weaknesses would not limit what God intended to do with him.  The Lord would work through them if only his heart remained true.