The Barque of St. Peter

Jesus calms the storm.

As a former Navy sailor, I have spent a considerable amount of time on the world’s oceans. I have experienced first-hand the mighty power of an angry sea. Every sailor who has ever been tossed about by forty-foot waves and gale force winds can testify just how utterly useless you are, incapable of doing even the most basic of tasks like eating or sleeping. The only thing you can do is to lash yourself into your bed and pray for the storm to pass. The Disciples had every reason to be terrified. Mariners being lost at sea is almost as old a story as the ocean is itself.

Only when they thought they were about to die, did they wake Jesus. Without hesitation, he calmed the storm. Then he asked the Disciples, “Do you not yet have faith?” The word faith is interchangeable with the word trust. Jesus looked at the Disciples as if to say, “After all you have seen, after all I have done, do you not yet have trust in me?” The boat was never in any real danger of sinking. The creator was in full control of his creation.

One of the symbolic names for the Catholic Church is the Barque of St. Peter. A barque is a type of ship with sails. The central part of the church where we sit in the pews is known as the nave, which is Latin for ship. The Church is a ship and Jesus is her captain. She goes where he steers. If that is into turbulent waters it isn’t to terrorize us but to make us better sailors whose full trust is in their captain. The Church can never be destroyed because Jesus is in her and has promised to remain with her until the end of time.

The Church is not the only thing that Jesus is in. When we receive him in the Eucharist during Holy Communion, we take into ourselves the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus. We become the boat. If Jesus is in us, we have no reason to fear the chaos of the world because, “greater is he who is in us than who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). Jesus has conquered the world. He is its master.

But to survive the storm we have to turn control of the boat over to Jesus. We have to let him navigate the turbulent waters. If you are like me, I say I completely trust Jesus, but then I don’t let go of the tiller. I want to remain in control of the boat. If I stay in control of the boat I will most certainly end up on the rocks.

The captain of the ship is not the one who scurries about trimming the sails, battening the hatches, or manning the helm. A captain gives orders to his crew. We demonstrate our trust in Jesus when we follow his commands. But to follow his commands we have to first be able to hear his voice. Sometimes that is hard to do amid the chaos of a storm. You have to actively listen for it. You have to seek it out in prayer. You have to place yourself in his presence at Mass and Eucharistic Adoration. When you hear his voice, you have to surrender to it and do what he asks. This is what it means to trust.

My shipmates and I never knew a better night’s sleep than those nights when we were tossed about in a storm at sea. When the storms had passed and we were afloat upon the tranquil waters, we were filled with great awe at the majestic beauty of the night sky and the grandeur of God’s creation; the same night sky the Disciples looked upon when Jesus calmed the storm by simply telling it to be quiet.

May you be filled with the same awe and peace of the Lord.