Homily

In the Gospel today we hear about one of the most amazing events of Peter’s life: he walked on water. The question I’d like to ask is: how did it happen? What did he do in order to walk on water? But, instead of trying to describe how God suspended the laws of nature to allow Peter to do such a thing, I want to back up a bit and ask what had to happen even before Peter stepped out onto the water. You see, many of us wonder why we don’t see many miracles in our lives. We question God and wonder if he is even there. Yet, is it really God’s problem or ours? Could it be that God is always ready to work with us, but that we also must take some steps towards him, steps that take us out of our boat of comfort in order to be held up by our Lord?

Too many of us would never do anything like what Peter did. Instead, we would prefer to stay in our comfort zones and never risk. But the Christian life is a life of risk. But the good news is that when we risk for Jesus we will always be saved, always be caught before we drown in the sea of our sins. That is the good news.

I highly recommend the Book “If You Want to Walk on Water You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat” by John Ortberg (Zondervan, 2001). In his book he reflects deeply on this very question and the implications of our actions in the fact of God’s plan. Mr. Ortberg asks the question: was Peter a failure in this event? Ortberg proposes that Peter was not a failure, but a success. And if Peter was a failure, there were eleven even worse failures in the boat who never even attempted to step out and trust Jesus.

But only Peter knew two other things as well. Only Peter knew the glory of walking on the water. He alone knew what it was to attempt to do what he was not capable of doing on his own, then feeling the euphoria of being empowered by God to actually do it. Once you walk on water, you never forget it -- not for the rest of your life. I think Peter carried that joyous moment with him to his grave.

And Only Peter knew the glory of being lifted up by Jesus in a moment of desperate need. Peter knew, in a way the other could not, that when he sank, Jesus would be wholly adequate to save him. He had a shared moment, a shared connection, a shared trust in Jesus that none of the other had.

The boat can serve as a metaphor for comfort. It is a shelter from the torrent or the violence of the waves. The boat keeps us safe. The medieval spiritual writers spoke of the church as a kind of boat, specifically the Arc. Yet, the boat can also serve as the thing that keeps us from moving ahead, the idolatrous lust for sitting around and avoiding change at every cost. By never getting out of the boat, Peter would never have walked on water. By consciously obeying Jesus’ command by stepping out into the unknown, stepping out into a place that would seem to destroy him, Peter his saved by Jesus. The Apostles, as Mr. Ortberg puts it, were boat potatoes. None of them even begged the question of Jesus in order to receive a response. They just sat there in their fear. and by so doing, they never received the mercy of Jesus in that moment.

Our Pastoral Council has been asking that question for two years now. They have been pondering on how to revitalize our parish and recapture the hearts of entire community with a new fire for Christ. After much prayer and discussion, they have discerned that a change is needed in our parish. They have discerned that we need to take a step out of our comfort zones, our boats, in order to let Jesus reach out to us in a new way. And so part of that plan involves the introduction of a Life Teen Mass every week in order to rejuvenate our young people and through them, who are the windows and doors of our hearts, inspire us adults. Furthermore, we have discerned that we need to invest more in adult education which spans young adults to our retirees. In order to accomplish that we have decided to create a new position called the Coordinator of Faith Formation.

In order to do meet these goals, we will have to shift our Liturgy schedule a bit so that we can handle the evening Life Teen Mass without killing me. You see, I can only celebrate so many Masses on Sunday and attempts to simply find another priest to regularly substitute have proven fruitless.

And so in order to further discern what Mass schedule would work best, the council wants to gather data to evaluate how people will distribute themselves amongst the different Masses so as to minimize overcrowding at any one Mass. This is not a ballot, nor we are not voting for whether or not the change will be happening. It is a process of gathering data in order to give us a sense of which schedule will be best for our parish.

We have discerned that we are being called to get out of the boat and walk on water. If you feel some fear or hesitation, know that courage is what is needed. Do not fear. Remember Peter and that if you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat and lean on Christ for your support.