Saint Augustine claims...
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Saint Augustine claims that this text is a lesson in humility. In our journeys we are all exposed to waves and tempests, but like the disciples we need to be in the boat. Its wood is the wood in which our weakness is carried -- the Cross. He also identifies the ship in which Jesus and his disciples sailed with the church (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 6, p. 337). Augustine also found meaning in Peter's efforts to walk on water. The episode exemplifies our attempt to rely on our own strength he claimed (Ibid., p. 341). While about Jesus' walking on the water he wrote:
Just as now we see the Lord walking as it were upon the sea, under whose feet we behold the whole madness of this world subjected.
(Ibid., p. 338)
To this Augustine adds that Peter in the waters represents the church. Just as the Lord would not let him perish and snatched him from the waves, so he does the same today with the church (Ibid., p. 339).
Oftentimes our lives and our church are saved from turbulence and the world's storms. And Jesus is regularly subduing such madness and turmoil. The lesson reminds us that when such chaos is ordered and when it is subdued so that we can continue to live, even today, it is a miracle of God. We dare not forget then famed religious author C.S. Lewis' observations about miracles: "Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some to see."
Don't let the letters of this gospel story be too big for you to see Jesus still the storms in our lives this week.
Just as now we see the Lord walking as it were upon the sea, under whose feet we behold the whole madness of this world subjected.
(Ibid., p. 338)
To this Augustine adds that Peter in the waters represents the church. Just as the Lord would not let him perish and snatched him from the waves, so he does the same today with the church (Ibid., p. 339).
Oftentimes our lives and our church are saved from turbulence and the world's storms. And Jesus is regularly subduing such madness and turmoil. The lesson reminds us that when such chaos is ordered and when it is subdued so that we can continue to live, even today, it is a miracle of God. We dare not forget then famed religious author C.S. Lewis' observations about miracles: "Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some to see."
Don't let the letters of this gospel story be too big for you to see Jesus still the storms in our lives this week.
