Walking On Water

This was my homily which I had to give at St Pius Seminary on the 10th of August

Visitors to the Holy Land like to take a boat ride across the Sea of Galilee, the sea on which Jesus walked. A certain tourist wanted such a ride and the boatman told him the fare was fifty dollars. “Fifty dollars!” exclaimed the tourist, “No wonder Jesus walked!” A proper understanding of the gospel story of Jesus walking on the sea has a lot to teach us about not only who Jesus is, but also about the faith of an individual believer.
The miracle story of Jesus walking on the sea, together with the one that goes before i.e. the multiplication of loaves, shows us that Jesus is Lord and has authority over all forces natural and supernatural. The Jews believed that the sea was the home of supernatural demonic forces. A rough and stormy sea was regarded as the work of these spirits. By walking on the raging waves and calming the stormy sea Jesus is showing himself to be one who has power and total control over these spiritual forces.
Although there are many Christians among us who have surrendered their lives to the Lord they still live in constant fear of superstitions, evil spirits, witchcraft, and curses. Today's gospel brings us the good news that these powers of darkness stand no chance at all when Jesus is present and active in our lives.
From the point of view of an individual believer like us, the story of Jesus walking on the seas, especially the involvement of Peter in the story, is a lesson for disciples who are tempted to take their eyes off Jesus and to take more notice of the threatening situation around them. In the gospel, Peter says to Jesus, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water”. Jesus gives him the word of command and says, “Come”.
It would seem like Jesus is commanding the impossible. Yet whatever Jesus commands us to do he gives us the power to do it. And an ordinary man Peter who is just like you and me does the impossible and walk on the seas, coming to Jesus.
This is exactly what St Paul also tries to tell us in his letter when he says ‘All things are possible through the power of Jesus Christ’. However Further on in the gospel we also notice that Peter on noticing the strong wind gets frightened, and began to sink. While Peter kept his eye fixed upon Jesus, and his word and power, he walked on the water well enough; but as soon as he took notice of the danger he was in, and focused on the waves he became afraid and began to sink.
There is a lot of insights that we could draw and learn from this gospel. Let’s take this time to think of situations, distractions, problems in our lives that force us shift our focus from Jesus who is all powerful.
Let’s remind our selves that inspite of all these situations; we have Jesus present with us who promises us that there is nothing impossible for him. Just as he calmed Peter by saying Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid, lets hear his voice, step out in faith and surrender our entire lives to Jesus. We can also take steps of increasing our faith by making use of the different gifts God as blessed us with like the Bible, the MOW classes, the church , the sacraments our personal prayer times, the Holy Spirit etc . Cause in the end St Paul sums it up the best by saying, for we (Christians) walk by faith, not by sight.