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Men
and Women of Little Faith
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by
Carlos Mantica
We are going to reflect on Jesus’ words to Peter,
his first representative on earth, when, on a
stormy night, and frightened by the violence of
the wind and the waves, the old fisherman, the
rock of the Church, has faltered and is sinking:
“O man of little faith, why did you doubt?”
(Matthew 14:31). This cry of Jesus is certainly
appropriate for all of us who intend to be
Christ’s apostles in this time and place – a time
of storm, but also a time of faith.
Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever,
and his words are just as relevant today as they
were back then. We need to understand them, and
perhaps on whether we understand them or not will
depend whether we sink down in anguish or are kept
afloat by faith.
What is the Lord actually telling us with this cry
of his? What teaching is there for us in this
gesture of the apostle, a man like us, and of
little faith like us, who has doubted like us, but
who now returns to the boat in order to become the
helmsman of the Church, Peter’s new boat, and the
guardian of faith – a man of little faith
transformed into the guardian of men’s faith?
If considered apart from their context, Christ’s
words smack of accusation and reproach: ‘You man
of little faith, how come you have doubted!’ But,
is that the meaning of the message of Christ to
his disciple? Is this the bottom line of these
words of his when we apply them to us, accusation
and reproach for our omissions and failures? We
need to understand Peter if we are to know and
understand what our Lord wants to tell us. In
order to see this more clearly, we are going to
review the full story of that night, so full of
light and darkness.
The Lord has commanded his apostles to come aboard
the boat and to go before him to the other shore.
This is what he has commanded us too. One day we
went aboard Peter’s boat, and we have gone before
Jesus preparing his ways. But it is now dark, and
the boat is being beaten by the waves, for the
wind, as Scripture says, “was against them”. And
in the fourth watch of the night, the Lord came
towards them. Under the shadows of fear, nights
become full of ghosts. So the apostles now cry,
full of fear. Their own Lord, who just a few hours
earlier had fed the five thousand with only five
loaves and two fish, now becomes a fuzzy, strange
figure that only increases their fear.
It is the fourth watch. That is, the time before
dawn. A time of darkness, barely tainted by tiny
vestiges of light. A time when you see all things
as if through a veil. That is, this is a time of
faith, when nothing is yet perfectly clear, and
when we have to grope along, guided only by the
glimpse of a light which is today only the hope of
the day that is to come.
What now disturbs Peter is a doubt we have
experienced a thousand times – whose is that voice
that confronts him in the middle of the night,
saying, “Take heart, it is I; have no fear”?
The danger is real, and the old fisherman knows
that. There are plenty of reasons to fear. But if
the voice is his, if it is really him who cries
and is next to us, we should not fear. Faith in
his love casts out every fear.
But, whose is that voice that comes to us from the
shadows, mixed with the sound of the wind and of
the waves? It has always been a problem for
Christians to discern the voices that struggle
inside them, mixed with one another. One of them
is the voice of the tempest, that cries out:
“Fear!” Another is the wind’s, that says:
“Confusion!” The other is the Lord’s, that cries:
“Take heart, it is I; have no fear!”
Peter does not wonder now whether he can walk on
the water. What he wonders is whether that voice
is really his, because with him everything is
possible. But he doubts whether the voice is the
Lord’s. In fact, his words are now a genuine
proclamation of his faith in the faithfulness and
power of the Lord our God: “Lord, if it is you,
bid me come to you on the water.”
This is the truest portrait of faith! Words of
uncertainty: “Lord, if it is you...” And words of
full confidence: “Bid me come to you... even on
the water.” Because this is precisely what faith
consists of: full confidence despite uncertainty.
Faith is decision in darkness, a leap into the
vacuum in the middle of the night.
And then a word of Jesus suffices, the word that
ought to suffice for all of us to jump into the
water with no life preserver, with no hesitation.
And that word is, “Come.” Because those whom the
Lord calls, he empowers to carry out the works
they have been called to.
And Peter, a man of little faith, but using the
faith he has, then walks on the water. Had he had
a faith like a mustard seed, he would have moved
mountains. However, because he uses at every
moment the faith he has, he can do the same things
that his Master does.
We are called to have the same faith Peter had –
faith to jump at the sole word, “Come,” when the
Lord calls, willing to carry out the impossible,
because everything is possible for one who
believes.
Peter has already scored two big acts of faith. He
has believed in Christ on hearing his voice. And
he has believed Christ in obeying his call. Now
Peter exercises a third act of faith, the greatest
and most beautiful of all, the most important one
for all of us. Scripture records it: “When he saw
the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he
cried out, ‘Lord, save me.’ Jesus IMMEDIATELY
reached out his hand and caught him...” This is
the faith we are supposed to imitate – faith in
Christ’s faithfulness; faith in our Savior; faith
that our Lord will come to the rescue, even in our
lack of faith, when, out of love for him, and with
faith in him, we get ourselves into troubles that
surpass our strength.
Faith is daring, and Peter is daring. Because he
was daring, he got into trouble the night of the
arrest. But there was more love in Peter’s denial
at the house of Annas, than in the flight of all
the other apostles, or in the prudence of that
fearful one who “followed him from afar”. And
there is certainly more faith in Peter’s failure
as a skier without skis, than in the prudence or
fear of those who waited in the boat.
I know that Peter’s faith was little in terms of
walking on the water, but it was a great faith in
his Lord, which is the one that counts. That is
why the Lord’s words are fair when he remarks, “O
man of little faith, why did you doubt?” But there
is more than just a few words here. There is God
who moves fast and a hand that saves. The Lord’s
outstretched hand that IMMEDIATELY comes at
Peter’s cry for help shows the magnitude of
Peter’s faith in Jesus Christ, for it has gone
beyond mere mountain-moving and has been able to
move God himself with just one phrase – “Save me.”
This phrase was enough thousands of times for the
blind to see, for the deaf to hear, for the sick
to be healed, and for our sins to be forgiven.
Because it was, and continues to be, the cry of
faith, Jesus’ response was and continues to be,
“Your faith has saved you.”
Peter failed in a small thing, but succeeded in
the important one. Peter knows who he has placed
his faith in. That’s why I think that he doesn’t
know Christ well who only sees in his words an
accusation or reproach for the only one who obeyed
the command, “Come.”
What I see instead is, next to the outstretched
arm, the joyful smile of Christ, with a joke that
comes out easily – “O man of little faith, what
happened to you?” I also see Peter, still pale of
fear, and shortly afterwards, profiled against the
night, the figure of two men who, arm in arm like
a pair of drunkards, come up the boat amid
coughing and laughing, while the wind stops in
amazement, and the sun begins to peer timidly to
look at the messy scene. The time of light has
begun.
Simon
Peter confessed, ‘You are the Christ, the
Son of the living God’
Scripture says that “those in the boat worshiped
him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’”
Perhaps the difference lay in the fact that Peter
believed that beforehand. “‘Who do men say that
the Son of man is?’ ... Simon Peter replied, ‘You
are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’”
This is a truth we need to appropriate. Just a few
hours earlier, the apostles had seen the feeding
of the crowd. In the darkness of night and in the
midst of the storm they were quick to forget it.
And that can happen to all of us. That’s why it is
so important to always bear in mind who it is that
we follow, who it is that we believe in, who it is
that we trust, willing to obey his voice when he
says, “Come;” willing to attempt the impossible,
knowing that he will come immediately to our help,
when our little faith is of no help.
Because, brothers and sisters, our trust is not in
our faith in the Lord, but in the Lord of our
faith, the Lord of infinite faithfulness, the King
of kings, before whom every knee bows in heaven
and on earth, because he has been made Lord of all
that exists, to the glory of God the Father.
It can be said that we are presently going through
times of darkness; we are in the fourth watch of
the night. We sail through stormy waters, and the
wind is against us. Days of darkness, of dense
mist, come upon us. Light means certainty and
safety. But uncertainty is the realm of faith. In
a certain way, we live in privileged times. Very
few realize that this is the only time when man
can have faith, our only chance to exercise it. A
day will come when faith and hope will be useless,
and only love will be left. But this is a time to
believe and to hope.
This is the time to recognize in the shadows the
figure and voice of him who says to us, “Come.”
This is the time to walk on the water, to do the
same things he does, and even greater, according
to his promise. A time to take risks, trusting
that the Lord will IMMEDIATELY come to our help,
if we walk towards him, following his voice.
Peter’s big mistake was to stare at the waves
instead of continuing to look at Christ. If that
ever happens to us, let us not hesitate to cry
out, “Lord, save us, for we are drowning!” It will
be a cry of faith in the Savior. It was for our
salvation that Jesus shed his blood. It was for
our salvation that God gave his Son.
In the fourth watch of the night, the voice of the
Lord says to you, “Take heart, fear not.” You
should ask yourself whether it is his voice
calling inside you, saying, “Come”, and jump to
the water trusting only him. And if something does
not come out the way you expected it to, try to
discern the smile of Christ, and God’s hand
reaching out to you and saying, “O man of little
faith, why do you doubt? Move forward!” It is not
a voice of reproach, but of encouragement. Move
forward, for I am with you always to the end of
the age.
A Prayer
O Lord of smiles, who from heaven laugh at your
enemies, Prince of peace who send forth your
breath and renew all things, who withdraw your
breath and they perish, we ask you, through the
intercession of Mary, the Mother of God and of us
all, that you will allow us to come to you, in the
midst of the waves, taking with us those who, full
of fear, can only see ghosts. Let your face shine
upon them in this fourth watch of the night,
because thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and
the Glory, O Savior of the world who lives and
reigns for ever. Hallelujah!
This
article is adapted from the book, From
Egghead to Birdhood (hatch or rot as a
Christian), (c) copyright 2001 Carlos
Mantica.
Carlos
Mantica is a founder of The City of God
community (La Cuidad de Dios) in Managua,
Nicaragua, and a founding leader of the Sword
of the Spirit. He served as
president of the Sword of the Spirit
between 1991 and 1995.
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