In today’s Gospel Jesus upbraids Peter: “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Peter, like most of the disciples in the Gospels, moves from moments of great faith to moments of little or no faith. Peter shows great faith when he gets out of the boat and walks to Jesus on the water after Jesus commands him, “Come.” Soon, however, Peter was overcome by doubt and fear: “But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’”
Throughout Matthew’s Gospel we see Peter’s journey of faith. He is given the nickname “Rock”, Cephas in Aramaic, when he confesses that Jesus is the Messiah:
“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church”. (Matthew 16:17-18)
But when Jesus teaches that he is to be a humble and crucified Messiah Peter rebukes Jesus who in turn rebukes Peter and calls him Satan:
“Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle (scandalon) to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” (Matthew 16:23).
Faith requires thinking as God does whereas our natural human tendency is to go with our “gut reaction” or our “first impulse.” Our faith journey as disciples like the faith journey of Peter and the other first disciples is oftentimes a movement from great faith to little faith to a searching and questioning faith to a strong faith. It is a humbling experience until ultimately, we come to realize that we cannot figure it all out and just need to trust in God. We need to remember that God is patient with us and is always with us on our faith journey because God “love[s] the human race and…always walk[s] with us on the journey of life.” (Eucharistic Prayer IV for Various Occasions).
Image: “IMG_3010M Pierre Paul Rubens 1577-1640 Anvers. Jésus marchant sur les eaux. Jesus walking on the waters. Vers 1618 Nancy Musée des Beaux Arts” by jean louis mazieres is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.