the spirituality of walking on water

"Now I am not sure of the physics of this event. I can’t explain the science of walking on water or of calming storms at sea, for I have experienced neither. What I have experienced and can speak of is the psychology and spirituality of this event.

As one who has been drawn to and has practiced contemplative prayer, silence and meditation in various forms as something of a perpetual beginner; I do know just how fluid and fickle the human mind is. The Sea of Galilee as a metaphor for the mind is so very appropriate.   Just like that inland lake, my inner state of mind and being can be beatifically calm one moment and cyclonically agitated in the next nano second. I have also learnt, with great difficulty, that the state of my inner being determines how I am able to deal with, manage and cope with, the outer squalls of life. ......

Peter the seafaring fisherman has to learn to navigate the inner ocean of his fears, before he will be able to be the “fisher for people” he was called to be.  Jesus the rabbi will teach him practically: in storms, in sleepy gardens of Gethsemane, at fearsome firesides in moments of denial, and one day in the not too distant future, back here on the shores of this very lake. “Peter do you realy love me more than everything?”

Walking on water is not the great achievement of this narrative. Having a still and trusting mind is the real miracle."

https://thelisteninghermit.com/2011/08/02/start-walking-by-standing-still/

walking on water coloring

a cruel fantasy

These are two of the most significant stories of our Christian heritage and deserve to be handled with integrity and sensitivity. For many who are sensitive to world poverty and disaster the images of multiplying food or walking on water are painfully unreal, almost a cruel fantasy. It does not happen. Whether people believe it nevertheless happened once will depend on their philosophical and christological presuppositions. Nothing indicates that the gospel writers thought the events did not occur. A slavish commitment to taking everything the writers say as gospel and yet also acknowledging the problems has led some to imagine that the gospel writers were not really reporting a miracle, but, for eyes that can see, really only a large shared lunch. Our integrity suffers when we try to explain away the text like that, however profound our intentions.
http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/MkPentecost9.html

Walking on water

Walking on water

Touching wetly

The voice echoes in my head: Come!

Come to where living defies limitations;

to this improbable arena where the divine

work of yearning and weeping awaits.

My feet touch wetly this strange and yielding

interface between faith and fear. Look,

I am walking upon the waters!

The Master’s expectations have driven me

from my cautious comfort

to this challenging place

of expensive love and grace

where human fruitfulness

begins to mirror divine purpose.

Ah, that I could stay boldly

here, among the faithful and the reckless;

but my fears betray my feet,

and baptism’s drowning adjusts its metaphor

as waves of anxious uncertainty

reach up to swallow my bravado.

Returned with diminished dignity

to the sympathetic glances of my companions

in our boat of refuge, I soddenly shiver

and resolutely regather my courage;

knowing that when the voice calls again

I shall once more step most foolishly onto the sea.

Ken Rookes