Pope: bearing life’s adversities with courage

This Sunday before the Angelus Pope Benedict XVI commented on the Gospel story of the miracle of the storm that was appeased and during which Peter was rescued (Mt, 14:22-33), encouraging people to bear life’s adversities with courage and trust in the Lord. The Pope, who is still enjoying the cooler climate of Castel Gandolfo was greeted enthusiastically by groups of pilgrims to the small village to join him in prayer the midday Marian prayer.

Reflecting on the Sunday Gospel he said : “It is an incident whose great significance the Fathers of the Church understood. The sea symbolises today’s life and the instability of the visible world. The storm indicates the many troubles that oppress man. The boat, instead, represents the Church built on Christ and led by the Apostles. Jesus wants to educate the disciples to bear with courage the adversities of life, placing their trust in God, the One who revealed himself to the prophet Elijah on Mount Horeb in “a tiny whispering sound” (1 Kings, 19:12).

On Peter’s rescue, “Saint Augustine, imaging that he was addressing the apostle, said, ‘The Lord lowered himself and took you by the hand. On your own, you cannot stand up. Squeeze the hand that comes down to you’ (Enarr. in Ps. 95:7; PL 36, 1233)! Peter walks on the water not because of his own strength but because of divine grace in which he believes. When doubt overwhelms him, when he stops looking at Jesus and is afraid of the wind, when he no longer fully trusts the words of the Master, he moves away from Him and begins to sink. The great thinker Romano Guardini wrote that the Lord “is always near us for he is the root of our being. However, we must test our relationship with God between the poles of distance and proximity. Proximity invigorates us; distance tests us’ (Accettare se stessi, Brescia 1992, 71).”

Pope Benedict XVI concluded, “before we seek or invoke him, the Lord himself comes to us, lowering the Heavens to hold out a hand and raise us up to his height”. “He only waits for us to trust him completely. Let us call on the Virgin Mary, a model of complete trust in God, that amid so many concerns, problems and difficulties that trouble the sea of our life, our hearts may heed the reassuring word of Jesus, ‘Have courage! It is me; fear not!’, so that our faith in Him may grow.”