by Mark Escobar

Created on: January 02, 2010

Readings:  1 Kgs 9a:11-13a; Ps 85:8; Rm 9:1-5; Mt 14:22-33

Jesus Walks on the Water[1]

At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”  Peter said to him in reply, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”  He said, “Come.”  ...”O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

There is something in today’s gospel which reminds me of one of the stories of Homer taken from Iliad and Odyssey.  Described as foundational to ancient Greek culture, some elements in the gospel story reflect the general cultural influence.  They may have alleged similarities or parallelisms in characterization but my point here is that their theological implications are sought to address new realities or religious  transformation which are in large part a competition of myths and evidently significant in the gospel truth.

            When Achilles killed Hector, son of the Trojan King Priam, the god Zeus who’s looking down from Mt Olympus, takes pity on him and he sends Hermes,[2] the messenger god, down to escort King Priam and his herald, Idaeus to pick up Hector’s body.  It says that Hermes “flies over the waves” of the Aegean Sea and “touches down on Troy.  When he appears to them in the dark they think of him as an enemy soldier and are terrified.  Hermes calms them with a lie telling them he is Achilles’ aide.  He leaps into the chariot and guides the men safely through the enemy camp.  Hermes tells King Priam, “I am a god that comes down to you, I am immortal Hermes.”

            Then another character in Greek mythology, Aeolus, god and father of the winds, and ruler of the island of Aeolia, gives Odysseus a favorable wind to help him on his journey home from Troy.  When Odysseus’ men opened the bag and released the winds, Aeolus refused to help him again.

            What I am trying to say here is that element of power that is beyond human capacity.  It is like ‘deus ex machine in Greek mythology when in our case God intervenes in the course of relationship or in human phenomena. 

             According to biblical narrative, Jesus

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