Occasionally, people will jokingly ask someone: “Do you walk on water?” It is a way to express their admiration for something courageous the person might have done, such as donating a vital organ which saves another person’s life. Or it might be a courageous act of bravery such as a lifeguard who jumps into the ocean water and pulls out a drowning person. Or it may be someone who devotes their life to inventing something new that will help humanity, like when Thomas Edison made the first light bulb. In all these and more instances, we can say that these brave people practiced faith over fear! As Jesus walks on water in today’s Gospel, he encouraged us to live with faith rather than fear. When we do so, we, like Peter, walk on water ourselves. But when we, also like Peter, trust our fear, we sink. Jesus needs disciples who are water-walkers, who choose to trust the vulnerability of love over the safety of fear. Are we ready to step out of the boat? Just getting back to Edison, for example, after he made the first light bulb ever created, he gave it to one of his assistants and said: “Put this down gently on that table.” The assistant, becoming so nervous and fearful of dropping the bulb, tripped and let the bulb fall to the floor and broke into many pieces of glass. Edison looked at the fearful assistant who thought he would get a tongue-lash from his boss, but instead, Edison said: “That first lightbulb probably needed some adjustments, so let’s begin to create a new one.” He didn’t get angry; he didn’t accuse his worker of making a bad mistake; he went to work again and after many more months he created an even better version of the first light bulb. The point is that Edison was a “water-walker.” He chose faith over fear. In the Gospel, St. Peter at least gave it a try. He had faith in Jesus and stepped out of the boat. For a while he was walking on the water. When he started to think about what he was doing, he got scared. At that point he sank. He chose fear over faith. Are we ready to step out of the boat in our own lives? ~ Fr. John