Matthew 14
Do you grow more optimistic day after day? Especially those who receive pensions, would you choose retirement in a heartbeat over your twenties and thirties because you don’t have to work too hard? I wish you all find today is better than yesterday and this decade is much more optimistic than previous decades. But I see it is not easy to remain optimistic as I grow older and as I observe many elderly. It is much more probable for us to have medical conditions and physiological dysfunctions or malfunctions as we reach an older age. I think if I live only according to nature without any spiritual life, I will suffer pessimism and fall into depression because what’s coming on later years will be all pains and sufferings and end with death and annihilation. Some may stay healthy to the end, but, I have seen so many elderly suffer but forgotten after death.
In today’s gospel, Jesus invites Peter to get out of the boat and come toward him by walking on the water. The water was already very rough and the waves high. Just imagine someone is standing on the raging deep water. No wonder the disciples cried out “It’s a ghost!” And now Jesus even calls you to come to him. How? By walking? Against the laws of buoyancy and gravity? It is obvious to sink! It’s the law of nature!
But Peter walks. Then, he averts his eyes from the Lord looking at the storm. And he starts sinking! He shouts for help. Jesus immediately helps him. And Jesus leads him to the boat, and the storm ceases.
Bishop Fulton Sheen interprets this passage as a rehearsal for Peter for his later fall. When he denied Jesus at the Passion, he failed. But Jesus helped his faith later. I think this interpretation is true. But I also think this episode is a prophecy for all people, especially for Christians. As we grow older, life is deemed stormy. The man only living according to nature feels entrapped in his life on the stormy waters. He cannot control this boat of life. It is at the mercy of the rough waters. And he is likely to be drowned and disappear under the water. No one knows where he is gone. In the middle of this storm, Jesus calls us. He calls us to come to him. It is against all the laws of nature. But as long as we do not lose sight of the Lord, we can walk toward him. We may fall, but if we pray for help, he saves us at once. Then, he leads us to calm water. He leads us to the shore.
Every day, we face problems of life – family troubles, financial difficulties, accidents, and so on. But let us not lose the Lord in our sight. Then we will walk the troubled waters. We will walk over suffering and death to the shore where the peace and calm reside.
