Jesus walking on the sea (Notes)

Saint Matthew - Chapter 14

Jesus walking on the sea. J-J Tissot

[23] Et dimissa turba, ascendit in montem solus orare. Vespere autem facto solus erat ibi :
And having dismissed the multitude, he went into a mountain alone to pray. And when it was evening, he was there alone.

And straightway Jesus constrained, &c. Christ did this—first, because He wished to go apart, that He might pray more quietly and instantly, alone; as is plain from the following verse. 2. That He might in this way more easily escape from the crowd, who He knew would wish to make Him a king because He had multiplied the loaves, as S. John teaches (6:15). 3. That He might give an occasion for the miracle which followed—His assuaging the tempest in the sea.

And sending away the multitude—i.e., with His blessing, and prayers for their welfare. Christ prays alone, to show believers that they should avoid a crowd and noise in prayer, and pray to God in secret and silence, with collected minds.

[24] navicula autem in medio mari jactabatur fluctibus : erat enim contrarius ventus.
But the boat in the midst of the sea was tossed with the waves: for the wind was contrary.

But the ship was tossed, &c.; Gr. βασανιζόμενον, i.e., was vexed, tormented. The Syriac is, when it was now distant many stadia from the land, it was greatly agitated.

[25] Quarta enim vigilia noctis, venit ad eos ambulans super mare.
And in the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking upon the sea.

At the fourth watch, &c.; Gr. Φυλακῇ, i.e., guard. The Romans changed guard every three hours of the night. These were their watches both in cities and armies. They changed thus frequently, lest a longer watch should give occasion to sleep, as well as to prevent guile and treachery. If the night were short, they divided it into three watches; if long, into four. The fourth watch, therefore, commenced about the tenth hour of the night, and lasted until the end of the twelfth. The time here spoken of—being immediately after the multiplication of the loaves—was about the Feast of the Passover, as we have already seen. Hence, you may gather that this tempest took place about the vernal equinox, when the day is equal to the night, each lasting about twelve hours. This tempest, then, lasted for nine hours; that is to say, during the three first vigils (or watches) of the night, until the fourth watch, when Christ came to His storm-tossed disciples. “That the Lord came to them in the fourth watch, shews they had been in peril all through the night,” says S. Chrysostom. And they, having rowed for nine hours, had not made more way than about twenty-five or thirty stadia (as S. John says), or about three Italian miles. Thus, during nine hours’ rowing, the Apostles had scarcely got half-way across the Sea of Galilee; for its breadth is about six miles, and its length sixteen. (See Josephus, Bell. Jud. 3, 18.) He says it is forty stadia in breadth, and one hundred in length. Adrichomius, Jansen, and others think that the Apostles rowed across the entire breadth of the sea. But others think they sailed in an oblique direction, traversing a portion of its length. For the desert was situated between Bethsaida and Tiberias, as I have shown on the thirteenth verse of this chapter.

Christ permitted His disciples to be tossed for so many hours by a tempest. 1. that He might accustom them to endure hardness. 2. that they might more ardently pray for God’s help. 3. that the calming of so fearful a tempest which Christ was about to afford might be more pleasant to them.

Hear Lactantius, (lib. 4. de vera Sapient. c. 15.) “But when the disciples of Christ were now about the middle of the sea; then He entered the sea on foot, and followed after them, as though he were walking upon solid ground: not as the poets fable Orion walking in the sea, who bore the waters on His shoulders, a portion of His body being immersed.” Afterwards he quotes the Sibylline verses, in which it was foretold that Christ would calm the winds and raging sea, would cure diseases, and would raise the dead. Hear also S. Augustine (Serm. 14. de verb. Dom. secundum Matth.) “The fourth watch of the night is the last part of the night, when the night is well nigh finished. Thus Christ will come at the end of the world, when the night of iniquity is over, to judge the quick and the dead.”

Walking upon the sea, by the divine virtue, which He had as God, and by the gift of agility, which as man, he assumed in time, says Joannes Major, on this passage.

[26] Et videntes eum super mare ambulantem, turbati sunt, dicentes : Quia phantasma est. Et prae timore clamaverunt.
And they seeing him walk upon the sea, were troubled, saying: It is an apparition. And they cried out for fear.

And when they saw him—saying, It is a spirit. Syriac, a lying vision, i.e., a spectre: both because such things are wont to walk by night and in the dark, and to appear to and terrify men, as Delrio shows by many instances (in Magico), as well as because, on account of the darkness, they did not recognise that it was Jesus who was walking in this manner, especially as Mark adds, He would have passed by them, as though he did not care for them, and had nothing to do with them, whence it follows:

And they cried out: This confused clamour was elicited by fear, such as is wont to be with sailors when they fall into peril of shipwreck, and despair of life, The disciples had a twofold cause of fear. To the fear of being buried by the waves was added the fear of the spirit, lest he should sink the ship.

[27] Statimque Jesus locutus est eis, dicens : Habete fiduciam : ego sum, nolite timere.
And immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying: Be of good heart: it is I, fear ye not.

And straightway—be of good cheer. Gr. θαρσεῖτε, i.e., resume your failing courage, be brave and confident. Arabic, be strong. I am, your Master, whom ye know, whose beneficence and omnipotence ye have experienced in so many miracles which I have wrought. Surely I would not make sport of you, like a phantom; but I intend to deliver you from the tempest, and from your fear. By this voice of Christ sounding outwardly in their ears, and inwardly in their minds, Christ took away their fear, and filled them with serenity, security, and joy.

Learn from this passage the difference between a good and an evil spirit, that the good spirit may terrify at first, but by and bye gives consolation and joy, as Christ did in this instance; but a bad spirit gives sensual joy in the beginning, but presently causes sorrow, anguish and despair.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam