Remember When Jesus Was Asleep in a Boat

By Ralph A Capone

Matthew’s gospel account about Jesus asleep in a boat that is being tossed about in the sea, fore and aft and side to side, during a violent storm, contains a great lesson for many faithful Catholics who today are adrift or scandalized by the Church, the ship or Peter’s barque. Our Lord is, of course, sadly correct to accuse me, and perhaps others, too, of owning little faith.

And when He entered into the boat, His disciples followed Him: And behold a
great tempest arose in the sea, so that the boat was covered with waves,
but He was asleep. And they came to Him, and awakened Him, saying:
Lord, save us, we perish. And Jesus saith to them: “Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith?” Then rising up He commanded the winds, and the sea, and there came a great calm (Matthew 8:23-26).

If we strive to possess a loving faithful heart and a pure light from a “single eye” (Matthew 6:22), then we shall see God’s providential care in all that happens in our lives, in the world, and especially now in the Church.  If our intention is to seek God in all the challenges and vagaries of life, secular and especially religious, then that “lamp” shall illuminate a way through this present ensuing darkness, and “your whole body, that is, all your actions, will be sound, (and) sincerely directed towards the good” (St Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on St Matthew, 6, 22-23).

The Old Testament comes to our assistance by the light of faith and for the glory of God. Jeremiah begins with a strong warning to the Jews that they must of necessity experience purgation and destruction, due to their apostasies and idolatries, before their healing and salvation. This wasn’t a very popular oracle. The glossing by St Gregory the Great concerning Jeremiah’s task of conveying this hard news of devastation and loss to be followed later by replanting and building is instructive. The great papal reformer writes:

One cannot build up if what disturbs the foundation has not been destroyed. In other words, the sweet words of good preaching are sown in vain if the thorns of self-love have not first been plucked from the hearts of the listeners” (Regula pastoralis, 3, 34).

The ancient Jewish people, individually and collectively, were guilty of infidelity and ingratitude. Before the restoration of Jerusalem can occur, their sins must be expiated. This reflection and insight should prompt faithful sons and daughters to judge their own lives according to their fidelity or lack thereof to God and to His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. What, indeed, is there that needs to be plucked from our hearts?

Clearly, the Church is in the midst of a great storm – on, across, and under the sea upon which the nave of Peter precariously traverses. Is this tempestuous storm, not a sign of needed purgation in the Church that means to “disturb(s) the foundation” in order to shake rotting timbers loose? To be sure, it is a terrible and unsettling journey causing profound fear for the vessel itself, the Church, and for our souls.

We are reminded, especially in the traditional liturgy, that in both truth and justice, personal responsibility and sin must be acknowledged and atoned for as a condition of the soul’s spiritual healing and growth. Otherwise, the “sweet words of good preaching are sown in vain.”  It is only in this way, individually, that we contribute to the collective, the common good, both inside and outside of the Church, accomplished firstly by our acts of repentance, self-emptying and sacrifice.

Flannery O’Connor, the Southern Catholic writer, says grace must wound before it heals. Grace must excise the cancer of disordered self-love, the idolatry of creatures and sin before it heals. This is an individual movement that is necessary before any group, culture or especially the Church, are remediated and restored. The barque of Peter, the ship of potential future saints, is dreadfully destabilized today in a vast sea of increasing faithlessness and unrepentance. We must each do our part to seek the kingdom first and to strive for personal holiness despite the wayward clergy or perhaps especially because of bad shepherds. Jesus never abandons His Church; He will not leave it or us alone. He may appear asleep, but He is present to us and to His Church, His pure and holy Spouse. If anything more, this storm must exhort us to cling more tightly to Him and to His Church while it is ferociously tossed upon the malevolent sea. The purgation and destruction that Jeremiah foretold are here in a way now and calls the children of God to repentance and trust. Cling to Him because He loves us! Cling to Him under His protecting arms and hold fast to the Truth, to Christ and to His Mystical Body!

In God’s time and His good providence, the faithless stewards will fall or be thrown overboard. And once again He will rescue us from death and eternal destruction. We must exercise patience and beseech God to increase this in our hearts so that we might weather this storm without losing faith or hope. In his book “Learning the Virtues”, Romano Guardini writes:

(t)he attitude of God toward the world is the first patience, absolute patience, possible only because He is the Omnipotent One, because He, who knows no weakness, is the true Lord whom no one threatens, the Eternal One, for whom there is neither fear nor haste. We may recall Jesus’ parable of the sower and the seed. The master of the field has sown good wheat, but in the midst of it, the weeds sprang up. His servants came and asked, ‘Shall we tear the weeds out?’ But he answered, ‘No, otherwise you will tear out the wheat with the weeds. Let both grow. Later the harvest will come, and they will be separated from each other.’ … Patience is the prerequisite for the growth of the wheat (Servant of God Romano Guardini)

Guardini reminds us, too, that patience is not passive when it possesses the Spirit’s insights into reality and which “demands strength – great strength” that only comes from God. Finally, we must ask for grace to increase our faith and hope, and to persevere in His love especially while we pass through this dangerous sea. For one day it shall be becalmed, the ship shall be stabilized, and we shall be rescued.

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, patient and rich in mercy, Have mercy on us
O Sacred Heart of Jesus, rich to all who call upon You, Have mercy on us
O Sacred Heart of Jesus, hope of those who die in You, Have mercy on us
O Sacred Heart of Jesus, delight of all saints
O Jesus, meek and humble of hearts
Make our hearts like unto Thine.