Dear friends,

Following the miracle of feeding the multitude – of which we heard about in last Sunday's Gospel, Jesus takes leave of the many people who have followed him on foot and are now returning home.

Jesus remained alone "by himself to pray".

Alone, on the mountain with God, he nevertheless does not lose sight of his own. He sees how they row with difficulty

He comes to them, but not straightaway, not in order to remove every trouble immediately. Until the fourth, final night-watch, that is, right up to the end of the night, shortly before the break of dawn; he lets them struggle with the turbulent sea.

With nice weather conditions it would have taken only one hour, with the tempest it takes almost the whole night. They are struggling to stay away from the rocks on the seashore the might cause the boat to be crushed and sink.

Could he not have helped earlier? Why does he wait so long, why does he leave us alone in our need? We see only our own distress in such stormy hours, whereas he watches for us and prays that we do not perish in the storm.

The apostles were exhausted, soaked to the skin, cold, and frightened. Small wonder, then, that they cried out in fear as they saw a human figure approaching them across the wind­-whipped waves. It is Jesus.

"Take heart," he calls out to them. "It is I. Do not be afraid."

"Lord," Peter calls out, "if it is really you, tell me to come to you across the water." Peter's willingness to do the un­thinkable enables him to experience the impossible. ­

Years later, Peter would remember: as long as he had kept is eye on the Lord, he was safe; when he looked down, and ought of the danger, he began to sink.

The boat in this story is a symbol of the Church. How often our frail craft is tossed about by wind and wave.  Jesus seems to be absent.
The sea represents the world and our life journey.
The storm and strong winds are the temptations and difficulties we encounter in life.

The boat can also represent our life tossed about by so many trials and sufferings
From experience we have learned that: when the night is blackest Jesus comes to us. He only seems to be absent. In reality he is never far from us.

“It is a ghost!” or an illusion, is the first reaction of the apostles at the sight of Jesus walking on the water.

I wonder why Jesus started walking on the water? Did he want to take a shortcut to catch up with the apostles? Was it an histrionic way to impress them?

“It is a ghost!” the apostles will cry again at the sight of the risen Christ on Easter Sunday. The storm of today’s Gospel is something more than a storm, it is a faith-trial.

Only God could tame to power of the water, kill the mythological serpent responsible for the havoc caused by the sea, as we said last Sunday.

Peter walking on the water is representing all of us, the whole church, that can not be destroyed by the power of the storm, by the power of evil.

Peter is anticipating here what Jesus will tell him some time later: “You are Peter, the rock and on this rock I will build my Church. The power of the netherworld will not be able to destroy it. Looking at the history of the church over 2.000 year we can say that no power of the devil was able to destroy it, whether he was working from the outside, through violent persecutions, or from the inside, through the corruption and vices of Christians.
 
When Hitler came to Florence to visit Mussolini in May 1942, all the churches were given the order to ring the bells to welcome the two dictators. The Cardinal of Florence gave order that churches should be closed and the bells should be tolled as for a funeral because it was the freedom of the Italian that had died. Hitler was furious and at the party given in his honor at the City Hall exclaimed: “I will destroy and smash the church like this glass!” and threw the glass against the fireplace. The glass did no break, the church is still alive today.

Peter started his walk on the water towards Christ with great courage. Till he kept his gaze on Christ the water was solid as rock under his feet. When, afraid of the tempest around him, as the sight of the familiar boat was vanishing, he looked at the sea and not at Christ, his heart started sinking, and so did his feet.
When we took an important decision, either when we were baptized, or when you married, or when I joined the religious life, we were walking with great enthusiasm toward Christ, not considering the temptations around us.

As time passes, our enthusiasm diminish also because little by little Christ seams no longer to be the Messiah we had trusted, but a ghost of the past.

We have reasons for this: He promised he was coming soon, so many generations have been waiting for Him and they have passed away, but of Christ no sign. It seams as nothing has changed: the poor continue to be poor, the powerful continue to be powerful and seem to mock us saying: ”Where is your God?” “Are you sure there is a God? Are you sure there is a life after this one?  Drink, be merry now!”

We can hear in these words the echo of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus from Jerusalem. They had followed Christ for three years, but now the authorities had crucified Him, three days had passed and nothing had happened!

They said to Jesus who was walking with them without being recognized by them: “We thought he were the Messiah, but nothing has happened” . Jesus tells them what he tells Peter: “People of little faith! Was it not necessary for the Messiah to suffer ?” and he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

How many religious, after many years in the religious life at a certain moment give up because nothing has changed around them. Worse, they try to make up for the time passed and they behave as if they were not religious! Christians do the same when they are in the world and behave like the world, have the same values of the people of this world.
“Why did you doubt?”

“Jesus, you ask me why did I doubt? Have you seen the tempest? Don’t you know how weak I am? Have you forgotten that I am a pure human being?

IMMEDIATELY Jesus STRECHED OUT His hand and took hold of Peter. We can not save ourselves, we can not but doubt. Faith is a gift to be asked on our knees.

We learn that we are victorious in the tempest of life, not because we are brave, able to swim , but because there is a love embracing us and protecting us. Looking back at the many tempests we went through during our life, we can truly say to Jesus: “No, you are not a ghost, Truly, you are the Son of God."

We now understand better who really Jesus is, and this not from books but from our painful, but real, personal experience. Matthew has sketched it out for us in Chapter 14th of his Gospel:

Jesus is the compassionate healer, the merciful teacher, the miracles worker who feeds the crowds. He is not a ghost, an illusion of our minds, he is not only a righteous man, but : “Truly you are the Son of God." The one who has saved and will save us in all our troubles! It is not we looking to grasp you, but it is you, merciful Savior, who stretch out your powerful hand and get hold of us while we are sinking!