Let us 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 Christ's church, has
faltered and is sinking: “O you 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
disciples in this time and place – a time of
storm, but also a time of faith.
Jesus 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.
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 by 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.
