Oh I’ll tell you something, I think you’ll understand; when I say that something I want to hold your hand. I want to hold your hand! We know that these are lyrics from a great Beatles classic: I want to hold your hand.
We love holding hands; at least most of us do. There is nothing more precious than a child holding the hand of mom or dad, or even brother or sister. When we fall in love, we long to hold the hand of our beloved. When we visit family or friends, especially after a long absence or during a difficult period, we hold hands. Sometimes we hold hands when we pray!
Maybe a more accurate song reference today would be that classic sung by Anne Murray and Elvis himself: put your hand in the hand of the Man who stilled the water; put your hand in the hand of the Man who calmed the sea!
As people of faith, do we reach out our hands to the only One who can save us, Jesus Christ?
Our Gospel today picks up right where we left off last Sunday. The crowds have now been fed, satisfied, and Jesus has dismissed them as his disciples go on ahead of him by boat. Jesus still was longing for that quiet time to pray and mourn for the news of the death of his cousin, John the Baptist, was still fresh. While the disciples crossed the sea they encountered a strong headwind that whipped up into a storm. It was the fourth watch of the night, this would be about 3 a.m. And here comes Jesus, walking on the water and approaching his friends yet they did not recognize Him; they declare it is a ghost. Now if we were to be honest with ourselves, we too would be pretty scared. Walking on water is not something a man can do and their faith was not yet mature enough to understand.
And who do we have first to speak up? It is Peter, who so many of us can relate to. He wants to be bold and he wants to be out front, but often his faith is weak and he is plagued with human weakness and impatience. Lord, if it is you, make me walk on the water too. Jesus simply replies, come. And here is an important line in today’s Gospel: Peter got out of the boat. Not only did he get out, he walked on water because in those few early moments, his focus was on Jesus. But his focus turned to the wind and the waves and he began to sink. Again, an important line in this Gospel: Lord, save me! Immediately, Jesus stretched out his hand and caught Peter. This should be for all of us hearing this today, no matter how many times we hear it, a lesson in living in faith. First, we must understand that life will not always be easy; storms will come and the winds of those storms will be against us. But no matter what, like Peter, we must get out of the boat. When our friends and family need us, we need to get out of the boat. When our parish family needs us, we need to get out of the boat. When someone is hungry, thirsty, lonely, frightened, get out of the boat! When someone is being discriminated or humiliated or bullied, we must get out of the boat. When our faith is under attack; when our nation still clamors to abort babies, promote euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research and yes, even same sex unions promoted as “marriage”, we must get out of the boat. When we hear of states wanting to go too far with immigration laws, like the ones passed in the last month to make it illegal for a church to pray with or give communion to an illegal alien, we must get out of the boat. When our government, battling day and night against each other, passes any legislation that places undue burdens on the poorest and neediest of our land, we must get out of the boat. And for us personally, we may have been away from reconciliation far too long; it’s time to get out of the boat. As Catholics, perhaps we are not faithfully praying every day or demonstrating our faith daily for those around us, we must get out of the boat.
Now, when we get out of the boat and keep our focus only on Jesus, we will walk on, strongly, in faith. But when the wind and waves of family and friends who disagree with us hit, when the world tells you your nuts for caring, when we are distracted by ours, or others political or social beliefs, we loose focus on Jesus and we will sink. My friends, we most certainly will sink.
But there is hope even in these situations; like Peter we must say: Lord save me, and then we must also reach out our hand to meet the hand of Jesus, who stretches His hand to us to catch us. We must put our hand in the hand of the Man, God the Son, who stilled the waters and calmed the seas. We must pray, like the Beatles sung, I want to hold your hand!
In the week ahead, keep this Gospel passage open on your kitchen table or next to your bed and pray this Scripture every day. And then in our quiet reflection, ask ourselves, when and where do I need to get out of the boat? And knowing in advance the difficulties, the storms and headwinds, we will face, will we cry out most sincerely: Lord save me. And then will we reach out our hand to meet His?
Maybe we can remember to do this by just simply saying: Jesus, I’m going to tell you something I know you understand: I want to hold your hand!
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