WALKING ON WATER #2

(See yesterday’s Journal to continue the thought today). Ron Rolheiser, O.M.I., author and president of Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio, Texas writes, “What we see illustrated here are two things that lie at the heart of our experience of faith, namely, that faith (literally) has its ups and downs and that it works best when we don’t confuse it with our own powers.

Faith has its ups and downs: We see this visually in the incident of Peter walking on the water. Initially his faith feels strong and he confidently steps onto the sea and begins to walk. But, almost immediately upon realizing what he was doing, he starts to sink. Our own faith works exactly like that, at times it lets us walk on water and at other times we sink like a stone. The gospel-image of Peter walking on the sea speaks for itself.

Faith works best when we don’t confuse it with our own efforts. The Sufi mystic, Rumi, once wrote that we live with a deep secret that sometimes we know, and then not, and then we know it again. Faith works like that, some days we walk on water, other days we sink like a stone, and then later we walk on water again.”

“O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Jesus