On Mount Horeb, Elijah stands before the Lord.
A great wind tears at the mountain and breaks the rocks.
But the Lord is not in the wind.
Then comes an earthquake.
But the Lord is not in the earthquake.
Then comes fire.
But the Lord is not in the fire.
Finally, there comes “the sound of a low whisper.” A still small voice.
Elijah covers his face.
He has recognised the presence of God.
The lesson is simple.
Noise is not the same as power.
God is the Almighty, yet He often comes quietly.
The Church has always understood this.
Hence the silence of the cloister, the stillness of our churches, and the bodily reverence of kneeling and bowing before God.
Not because God is weak, but because He is so great that the soul must become still before Him.
Elijah had seen fire fall from Heaven.
Yet now he must learn to listen for the whisper.
Then, in the Gospel, the wind rises again.
The disciples are in the boat.
Night has fallen. The waves are beating against them. The wind is contrary.
They are doing what Christ commanded, yet they are still caught in a storm.
Obedience to God does not promise a life without storms.
The disciples are not in danger because they disobeyed Christ.
They are in danger while obeying Him.
Sometimes we imagine that, if we are faithful, everything should become easy.
But the Gospel teaches otherwise.
We may be in the place where Christ has sent us and still find the wind against us.
St John Chrysostom says that Christ permitted the disciples to struggle so that their faith might grow stronger. Earlier, Christ had been with them in the boat during a storm. Now He appears to be absent. He is teaching them to endure, and to trust Him even when they cannot see Him.
The ancient Fathers saw the boat as an image of the Church.
The sea is this troubled world.
The waves are temptations.
The contrary wind is everything that resists the Gospel.
The Church is battered, but she does not sink, because Christ has not abandoned her. St Augustine preached that the sea represents the world and Peter represents the Church: shaken by fear, yet saved by calling upon the Lord.
Where is Jesus while the disciples struggle?
He is upon the mountain, praying.
The Fathers saw in this an image of Christ ascended into Heaven.
The Church labours below.
Christ intercedes above.
He may appear distant, but He is not indifferent.
He sees the boat. He knows the wind. He comes at the proper hour.
And He comes walking upon the sea. He does not fight against the waves.
He does not struggle to remain above them. He walks upon them.
In the Old Testament, it is God who rules the waters.
Now Jesus does what belongs to God.
The feet which walked the roads of Galilee tread upon the sea.
The hands which multiplied the loaves rule the created world.
The man coming towards them in the darkness is the Lord of Heaven and earth.
The disciples cry out in fear.
Then comes a voice across the water:
“Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”
The Lord who spoke to Elijah in the whisper now speaks upon the sea in the voice of the Word made flesh.
Notice that Christ does not first silence the storm.
First, He reveals Himself.
Before He changes their circumstances, He calls them to faith.
“It is I.”
That is enough.
Faith does not begin when the storm has ended.
Faith begins when we recognise Christ in the midst of it.
Peter says: “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”
Christ gives one command: “Come.”
Peter steps out.
The water has not become firm.
The wind has not ceased.
Peter is upheld by the word and power of Christ.
Here we see the work of grace.
Grace does not mean that Peter does nothing.
He must leave the boat.
He must place his foot upon the water.
He must walk towards Christ.
But he is not sustained by his own strength.
Christ commands.
Grace enables.
Peter follows.
For as long as Peter looks towards Christ, he walks where no human can walk.
But then he looks at the wind.
He begins to measure Christ by the size of the storm.
Fear enters.
He begins to sink.
The wind had been there from the beginning.
What changed was not the wind.
What changed was Peter’s attention.
He looked away from Christ.
That is often how we begin to sink.
We look at the state of the world.
The weakness of the Church.
The problems in our homes.
Our sins. Our health. Our fears for the future.
All these things may be real. Faith does not pretend that there is no storm.
Faith simply refuses to believe that the storm is greater than Christ.
Peter cries out: “Lord, save me.”
Three words.
No long speech.
No carefully prepared prayer.
Only the cry of a drowning man.
And immediately Christ stretches out His hand.
Peter’s faith is weak, but he still knows whom to call.
Christ does not allow him to disappear beneath the waves.
He catches him. He corrects him. He brings him back to the boat.
Origen noticed that Christ does not call Peter a man without faith, but a man of little faith. There is still faith within him, because even as he sinks, he cries to Jesus for salvation.
Then Christ enters the boat.
The wind ceases.
The disciples kneel before Him and say: “Truly you are the Son of God.”
The storm has led them to worship.
Elijah covers his face.
Peter cries for mercy.
The disciples fall down in adoration.
Reverence.
Prayer.
Worship.
These are the responses of those who have recognised God.
My brothers and sisters, we live in a noisy world.
We are surrounded by voices demanding our attention.
We can become so occupied with the wind that we no longer hear the voice of Christ.
We need silence.
Not an empty silence.
A silence in which we listen for the Lord.
We need to hear His word.
We need to keep our eyes upon Him.
We need to call upon Him when we begin to sink.
And in a few moments, the Lord of the storm will come to us quietly.
Not in earthquake, wind or fire.
But in the hidden majesty of the Holy Eucharist.
He may not remove every storm at once. But He gives us something greater: He gives us Himself.
So when the wind is against you, when fear rises, when faith begins to sink, do what Peter did:
Cry out, “Lord, save me.”
Keep your eyes fixed upon Christ.
Take hold of His saving hand.
Listen to His voice: “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”
For the storm will pass, the night will end, and the ship of Peter,
Holy Mother Church,
upheld by Christ and guided by His saving hand,
will come safely to the eternal shore.
St. Mary's, St. John Bosco and St. Edward's 