LEARNING TO WALK ON WATER

According to the psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1865-1961), when bodies of water appear in dreams or visions they are often recognized as metaphors for the unconscious. The turbulent storm on the Sea of Galilee in the Gospel, for example (Matthew 14:22-33), has Jesus coming to the disciples in their boat, walking on the sea. The passage is actually a lesson that the storm really comes from the within the disciples and the solution also comes from within them..  As with other passages in the Gospel, the events of the natural world mirror the internal and spiritual condition of those involved.  The experience of the stormy sea becomes an element to the disciples’ spiritual growth and salvation. It was not just the tale of an accident at sea. The entire scene was a glimpse into the spiritual struggles of the disciples — the struggle to believe, the struggle to take Jesus at His word, the struggle to accept that the shadowy figure gliding across the sea billows was, in fact, the Christ of God!

Faith is a process and may be said to involves stages — revelation, endurance, and acceptance, and a final development: a creative force born in the believer  that deifies, that sees the breakthrough of the Kingdom of Heaven.  The Apostles are challenged to the core by the storm on the Sea as we often are by the storms in our lives.  The storm revealed the fear of death that hid in the hearts of these rough fishermen as it does in the heart of all of us.  It revealed something else – Christ in the midst of the storm.  This does not quite do it for the apostles. They are shaken by an even greater fear. Ghosts!  On seeing him walking on the water they were frightened nearly out of their wits.  All this revealing is necessary. This is the first step in the process of faith. – revelation.

St. Irenaeus of Lyons, the first “formal” theologian of the Church,  repeatedly speaks of this revelation as “pedagogy” (teaching, enlightenment) using the image of God and man becoming accustomed to one another: The Word of God comes to and dwells, in man and became the Son of man, in order to accustom man to perceive God and to accustom God to dwell in human flesh, according to the Father’s pleasure.

The second stage is endurance. The storm does not kill them. The intensifying fear does not undo them. In the process of faith things often seem to get worse before they get better.  Faith always moves us into troubled waters. It is the inner work of purification, of emptying (kenosis). This is what Jesus meant by “the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and violent men take it by force.”  The cup must be entirely cleans Endure!ed and from the inside out. That is the second step: endurance.  Before we can walk on the water we have to learn how to ride the waves. Endurance means persistence, determination, and inner courage. St. Peter of Damascus counsels us: “Patient endurance kills the despair that kills the soul; it teaches the soul to take comfort and not to grow listless in the face of its many battles and afflictions” Endurance kills despair. Despair kills the soul. This is an essential element of faith in time of trouble. Endure!

Acceptance is the stage seen in the Gospel story when Peter recognizes Jesus in the center of the storm and then goes out of the boat to join him.  He asks for and receives the blessing to leave the boat. Was he out of his mind?  Acceptance often seems that way.  Once we have embraced the reality of the moment, the storm and the solution at the center of the storm, then we are at the moment of acceptance, when faith begins to create something brand new, creative, and before then, unimaginable.  Acceptance means achieving a peace of soul despite the swirl and bluster of the raging sea around us.

But it takes time for faith to grow and achieve that peace. The process is messy and halting. Peter sinks and is lifted up again as we are every time we fall or endure trouble.  Slowly, the truth grows that everything, as we have said, unfolds in Christ. There is no calm and there is no storm without Him.  We rise and fall in Him. We go through anxiety and fear in Him.  Faith gives rise to new, unexpected things and brand new undreamed-of possibilities.  This is the final stage of the process when the energy of creativity is released and we are swept up in the new creation, the new heaven and the new earth.  It is the belief in and discovery of the glory of God in us that propels us beyond the crisis, the moralism, legalism, and pietistic righteousness of the Pharisee — into the kingdom of heaven. The sea becomes still. The winds diminish. The boat becomes calm. Our soul receives a new breath of life!

The point is that Christ is at the center of every storm, including the present pandemic. And the center of every storm moves inside of us.  How can we not be stirred inside when we see the effects of this global disease? How can we not feel like Peter when he felt almost swallowed up by the water’s rage? From this interior place we can draw our strength to see what must be revealed, to endure the revealing, to embrace what is revealed, and then to be utterly reborn. Faith is a process of spiritual growth and, once we see this, faith makes it possible for us to navigate any circumstance of life without fear.  Have courage!  Reflect on your own faith. No matter how remote it may seem – this too shall pass thanks to Christ our God. Put yourself in that chaotic scene where the waters rage and the winds are angry.  In that tumultuous place, with all the fear, anxiety and worry in your heart, recall the solace and consolation in the words of St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo Regius:  “Trust the past to God’s mercy,, the present to God’s love, and the future to God’s providence.” AMEN.

Asking God’s continued blessing and protection on all of you,

Fr. Dimitrios