The Catholic Church teaches the doctrine of creation ex nihilo, that is to say, out of nothing. God has no beginning or end. God exists for all eternity. When God created the world, there was nothing else in existence, other than God. Unlike in the creation stories of other religions, God did not use any pre-existent material out of which he would have made the world.
Having said the above, we also need to bear in mind that the ancient Hebrews did not yet have the concept of creation ex nihilo. The divine revelation of creation out of nothing came towards the end of the Old Testament period and is first found in the Second Book of Maccabees. The ancient Hebrew understanding before then was that God created the world by subduing the forces of chaos, which were symbolized by water. Throughout the Old Testament, God demonstrates his divine power in part by showing that he has power over water. God turns the Nile into blood. He separates the Red Sea and then closes it up again. He makes water flow out of the rock. He stops the flow of the Jordan River and then starts it up again. He withholds rain from the sky when the Israelites turn to evil.
Likewise, in the New Testament, Christ demonstrates his divine power in part by showing that he too has power over water. At his first public miracle, he turns water into wine. Later, he calms the storm at sea and he also walks on water in the Sea of Galilee.
The message would not have been lost on the contemporaries of Jesus. They would have understood what Jesus was doing - namely, that he was demonstrating his divinity. Jesus walking on water is a display of cosmic power. All the other miracles that Jesus performed during his earthly ministry had to do with healing, feeding, restoring, or protecting. The miracles of service underscore that Jesus is the Messiah. The walking on the water shows that the Messiah is not just an ordinary man, but God Himself.
When Peter sees Jesus walking on water, he knows that he could also do so, if Jesus gave him the power. He asks and receives the power and is able to walk on water, like the Lord. One lesson for all of us is that we have no true strength of our own. Our strength comes only from God. Hollywood is always trying to teach us the opposite message. In movie after movie, we see the protagonists overcoming hardship after hardship through their own strength, without any appeal to divine assistance. God is written out of the story.
For example, in a currently very popular children's movie, KPop Demon Hunters, three young women battle demons to save humanity from destruction. The movie is fun and has a good overall message in that the good guys are shown to be resisting and fighting demons. But the fundamental flaw in the story is that the heroines battle the forces of evil on their own, with no divine assistance. Made up stories on the big screen may make it seem like we can have true victory over evil on our own. But the reality is quite different. Only the grace of Christ can help us succeed.
Another lesson for all of us from the account of Peter seeking to walk on water is that we must always keep our focus on Christ. Peter had the power to walk on water miraculously only while he keeps his gaze firmly fixed on Christ. The moment he looks away, he begins to sink. It is not enough for us to accept Christ in our lives once or twice or even a few times in our lives. We must center our lives on Christ fully, at all times, every moment of each day. Just like a deep sea diver must always be connected with his oxygen tank, we too must always be connected to Christ.
Our daily, minute by minute connection to Christ does not always entail grand events. In the First Reading, we see that Elijah encounters God not in spectacular phenomena, but in the whispering sound. In each of our lives, there are likely to be moments when God reveals himself through great events. But more often than not, we encounter God through the ordinary things of life - small acts of love and service, the patient carrying out of the duties of our state of life, and tiny miracles that may seem like coincidences. As the Benedictines have put it, our task is to pray and work (ora et labora). We should participate fully in the prayer and sacramental life of the Church and we should work diligently, doing the labor that is accorded to us, given our specific life circumstances. If we do so, we will be able to center on Christ each moment of each day.
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The readings for Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A are:
1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a
Psalm 85:9, 10, 11-12, 13-14
Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 14:22-33
The full text can be found at the USCCB website.
Photo Credit: The Sea of Galilee (c) 2016 by Zoltan Abraham.