A few years ago, I traveled to Minnesota in the middle of January to give some talks and when I came back my wife asked me how it went. “It was great,” I said. “There was ice everywhere. I felt like Jesus. I was able to walk on water.”
This week, we see Jesus doing it but without the cold weather. In the process, as we listen to this passage from Matthew – and connect it to the first reading, from Kings – we get a beautiful lesson in just who God is and what he does. And it happens in three distinct ways. You could call them the three S’s.
First of all, we discover that ours is a God who sends us.
At the beginning of this Gospel, we see Jesus making the disciples get into a boat and travel to the other side of the lake, while he goes off by himself to pray. He sends them to continue the work that he has begun – which, if you remember from last week, includes feeding all who hunger. Our Lord doesn’t expect us to keep what he has given us to ourselves. He gives us work to do. As I proclaim at the end of every Mass: “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord with your life.” This is our mission, what we are sent to do.
As we know, and the disciples know, sometimes there are storms. It isn’t always smooth sailing. But we need to carry out our mission. God sends us to do just that.
And it can happen in astonishing ways.
I never thought that my own vocation would rise from the ashes of 9/11 – that the most brutal and devastating event of our recent history would become a moment of grace. I couldn’t imagine that, from that event, I would be called to Holy Orders, and then sent through the unpredictable waters of life to a place called Apopka.
But God has a mission for us: to live our lives in witness to the Gospel. He sends us forth. That’s how it begins.
Which brings me to the second way God acts in our lives, the second S: he surprises us.
He defies our expectations. I don’t think any of the disciples expected to look up and see Jesus walking toward them on the water. (And it wasn’t ice!) In the same way, remembering the reading from Kings, we hear how Elijah went to see God at the entrance to a cave. He experienced a heavy wind, an earthquake and fire. But God wasn’t a part of any of that. No. He passed by as “a tiny whispering sound.”
How often our Lord makes himself present to us in surprising ways – ways of smallness and tenderness and humility.
He entered human history as a helpless baby. He worked in a small town as a carpenter for most of his life. He chose unknown fishermen to evangelize the world. Even today, he comes to us in something as fragile and as common as a sliver of bread. Behold the lamb of God. We will experience that once more just a few minutes from now.
Could anything be more surprising than that?
Thirdly, finally, our God doesn’t make us face life alone. There is another S. He supports us. He saves us.
In this Gospel, Matthew doesn’t tell us if the disciples were crying out for Jesus, wishing that he were there with them. They say nothing. But he is there when he needs them. He knows they must have been frightened, so he comes to them. Out of nowhere, they see him walking across the water.
Our Lord doesn’t abandon us. We may feel we have been sent into a difficult, storm-tossed world – fighting against problems we never anticipated. I think most of us know that not all winds and waves are caused by weather.
Maybe it’s being laid off from a job. Maybe it’s facing a medical crisis. Maybe it’s being shunned or abandoned or hurt by people you trusted. Maybe it’s feeling utterly alone or unloved.
This Gospel reassures us: We are not alone. We are loved. Our Lord is there for us. He is our strength, our shelter, our support. He gives us a savior, his son.
Thomas Merton concludes his famous prayer with words that could have been said by the disciples after Christ appeared on the water.
“I will trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”
In the early Church, the image of a boat was a popular symbol of the Church. To be in that tiny vessel was to face dangers we can’t even imagine – criticism, condemnation, persecution, even death. The first people to sail in that boat ‑the Church, the “barque of Peter”‑ experienced terrifying trials.
But Matthew reminded them of these three important facts –the “Three S’s.”
Our Lord sends us…he surprises us … he supports us.
The message is simple: Don’t doubt. Believe. “Do not be afraid,” he told them. Have faith.
This Gospel concludes with an important detail. Jesus steps into the boat, and the disciples worship him: “Truly, you are the Son of God.” It’s the first time that happens in Matthew’s Gospel.
What happens next? After this passage, the journey of the boat continues. It arrives at its destination – the disciples finding their way, with Jesus by their side. Those in the boat do what they were sent to do.
So should we.
Storms pass. There will be others.
But the great work that began with our baptism continues.
God sends us. He surprises us. In our need, he saves us. We are not alone.
As we prepare to receive our Lord in the Eucharist ‑ in the surprising, humble form of bread and wine ‑ let this be our prayer: to remember that lesson from this Gospel, and to find new ways every day to fulfill our mission and “glorify the Lord with our lives.”
