Hi, I'm Matthew Kelly and welcome to Feed Your Soul. This Sunday's reading is one you've heard a thousand times. And so when we hear these very, very familiar readings, the challenge is to listen on a deeper level. The word obedience comes from the Latin verb which means to listen deeply. To listen deeply, if we're going to be obedient to what is good, true, right, just, noble, we have to listen deeply. If we're going to be obedient to the word of God, to the gospel, we have to learn to listen deeply. And being very, very familiar with a reading, can very often be an obstacle to really hearing it, to really listening.

So let's take a look. Then Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. So we see this all the time, right? We see Jesus, all these people around him. Imagine everyone wants something from him, pulling him in a thousand different directions. And after that, he goes away into silence and solitude to reconnect, to rejuvenate. And you have to ask yourself, like, "If he needed it, how much more do we need it?" And you've got people pulling at you in different directions, want you to do different things, asking you to do stuff all the time. But do we step away from time to time, on our own, in the silence and allow ourselves to be refreshed, to be rejuvenated?

When evening came, he was alone. But the boat by this time was many furlongs distant from the land. It was being beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night, he came to them, walking on the water. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, "It is a ghost," and they cried out for fear. But immediately, he spoke to them, saying, "Take heart. It is I. Do not be afraid." So the disciples had a long day too, right? And Jesus has put them in the boat, sent them off ahead of him because he knows they've had a long day. And he knows it's obviously going to be a long night because it's the fourth watch, which means pretty late. So they're tired. They're anxious. The wind starts to beat the boat. The waves start to beat the boat. They become afraid, and then Jesus starts walking on the water, and they're terrified.

Now, there's another story in one of the other gospels, very, very similar. Jesus in the boat, the boat starts to get thrown around, and Jesus in the boat, all they had to do is wake Jesus up. But in this story, Jesus is walking to them on the water, and they become terrified. He says to them, "Do not be afraid." The most common phrase that comes out of the mouth of God in the Old Testament and the New Testament, be not afraid, or do not be afraid or have no fear. What are you afraid of right now? What is the central fear in your life right now? And is it something to do with yourself? Is it something to do with someone else? Is it something to do with a relationship? Is it something to do with society, our nation? What is your central fear at this point in your life? You should hold that in your mind as we finish this reading. And Peter answered Jesus. He said, "Lord, if it is you, bid me to come to you on the water." So there's a couple of things here. Firstly, Peter isn't even sure it's Jesus. So they still think, "Okay, what's going on here?" which is astounding, right, because they've seen Him do all these miracles. They've seen Him heal all these people. They've seen extraordinary things. But in the face of this next extraordinary thing, they're confused. They're baffled. They're terrified. And of course, Peter's like, "Jesus, if it's you, bid me to come out there." What's really important to understand here-- because a lot of people talk about this reading as taking a step out in faith. Okay. But what's really important to understand here, it wasn't Jesus's idea. It was Peter's idea. Jesus didn't say, "Oh, Peter, take a step out in faith. Come on over here. Let's sort this out right now and work out that-- I'm the creator and you're the created, and." No, it was Peter's idea.

He said, "Lord, if it's you - so it's really a test, right? - bid me to come to you on the water." So Jesus says, "All right, Peter. Come on." So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out, "Save me, Lord." Okay, so what happened? He got distracted. What does the wind represent here? It represents the distraction of life. He got distracted. We get distracted. We take eyes off what matters most, take our eyes off the main thing, and we get distracted. And then we start to sink, and that's what happens. Jesus says, "Come on, Peter, you can walk on this water," and he's got his eyes on Jesus, and he's walking towards Jesus. He gets distracted by the wind, takes his eyes off, starts to sink.

Where is Jesus in your life right now? Is he in the boat with you? Have you left Him behind? So it's what they do in the beginning. Are you walking through a difficult situation with your eyes firmly fixed on Him, or are you in the midst of a difficult situation completely distracted by the wind and the waves and what everyone else has to say and everyone else's ideas and opinions and afraid? And Peter cries out, "Lord, save me." Jesus immediately reached out and caught him, saying to him, "Oh, man of little faith, why did you doubt?" And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased, and those in the boat worshiped Jesus saying, "Truly, you are the son of God." So you've got this story. You've got this great turmoil. You've got this situation, and then you had this great declaration of faith. You've got this great fear. You've got Peter having this idea to step out and walk on the water, and you've got Jesus constantly saying, "Don't be afraid. It's me. Don't be afraid."

And so we have to ask ourselves, "What are we firmly fixed on at the moment? What is in the center of our lives?" And if we don't have our eyes, our gaze firmly fixed on what matters most, firmly fixed on Jesus, if we are caught up in the distractions, what is that you need to do to get Jesus back to the center? Do you know that? Is there a prayer routine that you go through? Is there spiritual exercises that you use? Is there a place you go to? Is there a quiet place that you go to that place and it allows you to place Jesus back at the center of your life? Because we all need to do that from time to time. If you don't have that place, find a place like that. In our noisy, busy, crazy world, each and every single one of us, we need a quiet place where we can go back and place Jesus at the center.