February 2008

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ,

Recently I was looking at an ancient icon showing Christ in a boat with the
apostles, fishing in the Sea of Galilee. As waves pounded the boat and
a violent wind lashed the sail, Christ slept, but the apostles were
afraid. The second panel showed Christ no longer sleeping, but standing
with His hands raised to quiet the wind and raging sea.

I opened up the Gospel of Mark (4:35-40), which reads:

On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross
over to the other side.” Now when they had left the multitude, they
took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also
with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the
boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep
on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not
care that we are perishing?” Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and
said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a
great calm. But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it
that you have no faith?”

I started to think how the storm and tempest represent the everyday problems of life, and how we are like
the apostles in the boat, with Christ protecting us from life’s
calamities. He won’t let anything happen to us while we are in the boat
with Him, yet still, we are afraid.

If we are in the boat with Christ with our hearts and souls — inasmuch as we have received Holy
Baptism and Holy Chrismation — if our faith is strong in these things,
Christ has the power over all of the problems of our lives. As long as
we are in the boat with Him, what could possibly happen to us?

The analogy seems quite clear. When we are in the boat with Christ, we may
not have control, and maybe we have felt frightened and insecure at
times when faced with all of life’s problems and woes and troubles. But
He will bring us — His most precious cargo — safely into port, which is
salvation.

Many times in history, the Holy Orthodox Church has been depicted as a boat, with a cross on the sail and Christ as the
helmsman. We, the faithful, are His passengers, and we should never
despair, for Christ is with us. But are you with Christ?

With much love in Christ,
Fr. Philip