Robert Barron - In the Storm? Look to Christ!
Peace be with you. Friends, our Gospel for today is from the wonderful fourteenth chapter of Matthew, and it's his account of the calming of the storm and the walking on the water. This is an event that reached very deeply into the hearts and minds of the first Christians. We can find an account of this in all four Gospels, and obviously, this sort of thing would've just turned them upside down. And they began to reflect on this extraordinary event in very deep ways. By the time the Gospels are written down, what you have is, it's a combination now, and there are two schools. One wants to go one way, one the other, and they're both true. What I mean is, this is an historical account. It's an account of something that happened.
So don't think that this is just a made-up story with a moral meaning. No, no, this happened. But once it happened, the Christian community began to reflect very deeply on the event and pull out the different levels of meaning associated with it, so that when it's finally written down, let's say Matthew's Gospel is around the year 80 or so, when it's finally written down, what you have is not a newspaper account. If you're a good journalist, just give me the "who, what, when" and all that. Just tell me exactly what happened. Or it's simply a photograph of an event or a film. That's one thing. But what you have in the Gospels is not so much that.
I would call it an iconic representation. It's a real event, but it's now being presented to us in an iconic way so that we can see all of its theological and spiritual implications. So that's my principle. Now, where did I learn this? From some newfangled Scripture scholar? No, no, I learned this from Origen and Chrysostom and Jerome and Augustine, the great Church Fathers. That's how they read these texts. So let's look at this text iconically, and what do we see? "After he had fed the people, Jesus made the disciples get into a boat and precede him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds".
Now, the disciples in a boat, that's code. The disciples in a boat is a symbol always of the Church. That's why we speak of the barque of Peter, the ship, the boat, of Peter. The Apostles, the immediate followers of Jesus, in the boat symbolize the Church. And once you see that the Gospels begin to open up in fresh ways. And listen: "After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray". Okay, what do the early Christians intuit now about the Lord? The risen Lord has sent the Church out into the world.
So think now of the ship, the barque of Peter, and it's setting out onto the waters of space and time. The Church is now sailing out into the world. Where's Jesus? Well, he's not in the physical sense in the boat with them. Where's the physical Jesus now? Well, he's not here physically among us. Where is he? He's on the mountain praying. A symbol here, it seems to me, seems to the Church Fathers too, of the ascended and risen Christ, now in the heavenly place, interceding for the Church with the Father.
What's Jesus doing all day? Well, he's guiding his Church. He's interceding for his Church with the Father. So think of this now as an image for all of us. It's two thousand years later, but we're all in the barque of Peter. We're in the ship of the Church. We're making our way through the waters of space and time. And Jesus, ascended and risen, is interceding for us. Okay? "When it was evening he was there alone". He, Jesus. "Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore", listen now, "was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it".
Again, did this really happen? Yes, they're describing a real event, the storm at sea. But now we're reading it with these theological and spiritual lenses in place. The barque of Peter making its way through space and time sometimes is on smooth water, smooth seas. But very often, and even the most casual student of Church history knows it, very often the Church goes through storms. The wind is against it. Now we've heard just in recent weeks reading the parables of Jesus, "there's an enemy at work". Yes, there is.
We have enemies both visible and invisible, and they stand to thwart the purpose of the Church. There's our own corruption, our own stupidity. There are the enemies that we can see who oppose themselves to us, etc., etc. All of these forces kick up the waves and make the sailing of the ship dangerous indeed, perilous indeed. Again, go from the time of the Apostles, all the way up to the patristic period, into the Middle Ages, into the modern period, into our contemporary world, what do you find? The Church being tossed about by waves.
I referenced it I think last week or a couple weeks ago. We've all just in this country been going through a very stormy time, with the scandals that have rocked the Church. The barque of Peter, yes, was taking on water. The barque of Peter was up against very strong waves. "During the fourth watch of the night", now this is code for the darkest time of the night. It's always darkest before the dawn, right? So the darkest time of night. It's night and it's stormy. If you feel the Church is going through a rough time, it's right at this moment.
"The disciples saw him walking on the sea," and "they were terrified". I mean, they remembered this so vividly, this fact of Jesus walking on the sea. But let's read it theologically and spiritually. The Church is being buffeted by waves. They're afraid, of course they are. At the darkest time, Jesus comes walking on the stormy waters. See, notice, not only managing to swim in them. Let's say that you got the strongest swimmer around; the strongest human figure is able maybe to swim in stormy seas. No, he's not just doing that. He's walking on the water.
Go right back, everybody, to the opening verse of the entire Bible, when there's the "tohu wabohu," we hear, the stormy, the watery, chaos, and the spirit of the Lord hovers on the surface of the water. This is the creative power of God, listen, bringing order out of chaos. When the Israelites come up against the Red Sea, through the power of the Lord that sea is split and they're able to walk through it. So here the divine Christ is able to walk even on the stormiest waters there are. Praying for his Church? Yes, indeed all the time. Also intervening when the Church is most threatened with his divine power to master even the worst crises.
See, we're meant to take an enormous comfort in this. Notice though, please, what precedes the comfort, if you want. They saw him walking on the sea and they were terrified. See, this is the proper response to the power of God. As I say, if you saw a powerful human being swimming in the stormy waters, you'd say, "Wow, that guy's impressive," or, "Wow, maybe he can survive this". But when you see somebody walking on the stormy waters, you're not dealing with an ordinary human agent. You're dealing with the power of God. What's the proper response to the power of God? It's terror. And not a terror that's debilitating, but it's a keen awareness of the transcendent power that we're dealing with.
It's wonderful. It's the fear of the Lord, if you want, that gift of the Holy Spirit. "At once Jesus spoke to them, 'Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.'" Again, this is biblical code, isn't it? This is Matthew's Gospel, but you find this especially in John. The Greek there is "ego eimi," which is "I am". I am. See, it is I. But what he's saying is an echo of Exodus 3:14, when Moses asked God, "What's your name"? And in the Greek of the Old Testament, he says, "ego eimi ho on," "I am who am". I am the one who is. My name is I am.
So the power here, everybody, is Jesus announces to them his own divinity, and it's only in that divinity that we are going to find salvation in the stormy times of life. If we start turning toward human figures, I don't care who they are, they're philosophers, they're theologians, they're pop stars, they're political figures, forget it. Forget it. That's not going to save us. The only power capable of saving and sustaining the Church is "ego eimi," I am who am. It's the divinity of Jesus. And isn't it lovely? He says to them, "Take courage. Don't be afraid".
Where's courage come from? I mean real courage. Not from worldly figures. It just doesn't. I start relying on these worldly figures, I will necessarily be disappointed. Where does the courage to be come from? It comes when we borrow from the divine Christ something of his divinity. When we participate, yes, even in the stormy times, in his divinity, we find courage and we find peace. Now wonderfully, of course, Peter, as he often does, speaks for all the other Apostles. The successor of Peter is still the leader of the Church. So Peter speaks to the Lord: "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water". Jesus says, "Come".
Now, remember, we're still in the storm here. Think of the Church at its darkest, stormiest times. Jesus says, "Come". Come. And then, "Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus". This is exactly now what I was talking about, that we borrow some of the power and the courage of the divine Christ and then we are able, yes, even to walk on the stormiest waters. How do we get through these times? Don't rely on ourselves.
Everything in our culture says, "Me, me, me. My prerogatives, my choice. I'm so great. I'm perfect in every way". Forget it. That's a spiritual dead end. Or, "Oh, I better rely on these political people. They're going to save the day". Or, "Oh boy, these revolutionaries". Forget it. None of that will allow you to walk on the water. It's only the power of Christ, the divine Christ. And then this beautiful detail. So Peter's walking on the water toward Jesus, looking at the Lord, "but when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, 'Lord, save me!'"
It's a simple point, but very important spiritually. When you're in the midst of the storm, we're in one right now in the Church, God knows, you're in the midst of a storm, look not to the waves but to Christ. It's always the temptation to look first at what's threatening us. I know it's an instinct. It's a deep animal instinct in us, to look at what's frightening us. "I better be careful of that". No, no. Keep your eyes fixed on Christ, and then you can continue to walk. The sinking comes when we turn from his divine power to what's threatening us.
And then how beautifully it ends: "Jesus stretched out his hand and caught Peter, and said to him, 'O you of little faith, why did you doubt?'" And they got into the boat, and the winds died down. There's Christ who, up and down the centuries, as the barque of Peter crosses the waters of space and time, saves his Church. And look how it ends: "Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying, 'Truly, you are the Son of God.'" They got it.
See, it's one of the moments when they realize, "We are not dealing here with another Jeremiah or another Isaiah or another Abraham or Jacob". No, no. Nothing as trivial as that. What we're dealing with here is the God of Israel. We're dealing here with the Lord God. And so the proper response is not just to admire him or thank him but to worship him. Mind you, my fellow Christians, when we stop doing that, we've lost our way as a Church. When Jesus becomes just one more little interesting prophetic figure among many, forget it. We are going to go under the waves. But see, when we trust in his divinity and his power, we do him homage? Even we can walk on the water. And God bless you.