Courage and Faith in Jesus

In today’s Gospel, Matthew 14: 22-36, the disciples are out on the sea, buffeted by strong winds.  Jesus had stayed ashore to dismiss the crowd of about 5000 men plus all of the women and children that they had just fed.   “During the fourth watch of the night  [around 3:00 in the morning][Jesus] came toward them, walking on the sea.”  The disciples are terrified, thinking that they are seeing a ghost walking toward the boat.  Jesus, aware of their fright, says to them: “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” Impetuous Peter says to Him: “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” Jesus says: “Come.”  So Peter begins to walk on the turbulent water toward Jesus and as the winds whip around him, he becomes frightened, takes his eyes off Jesus and begins to sink.  “’Lord, save me!’ Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him," saying “O, you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

You and I are those disciples!  You and I are Peter.  With Jesus, we do wonderful things, things only God can do—in this case, it was feeding 5000+ people with five loaves and two fishes with 12 wicker baskets of food leftover.  We then go about our “business” and encounter situations beyond our power to guarantee our safety. Jesus is right at our sides but we do not recognize Him.  We hear in the depth of our beings: “Have courage! I am right here.”  Bolstered in our faith, we plunge ahead to take on the “storm.” The “stormier” it gets, the stronger  our fear becomes. We take our eyes off Jesus and feel ourselves sinking. “Save me, Lord,” is all it takes. Jesus immediately reaches out His hand. Do I take it? Do I realize that I need the Lord to survive Satan’s wicked schemes that rise up out of nowhere.

Jesus is not a ghost, as the disciples thought. He is real! He is with us whether it is 3:00 o’clock in the morning or 3:00 o’clock in the afternoon, or any time of the day or night, to catch us, to lift us up, to save us.

I believe that! Do you?