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From: Mark 6:45-52

Jesus Walks on Water

[45] Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to
the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. [46] And after he
had taken leave of them, he went into the hills to pray. [47] And when evening
came the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. [48] And he
saw that they were distressed in rowing, for the wind was against them. And
about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He
meant to pass by them, [49] but when they saw him walking on the sea they
thought it was a ghost, and cried out; [50] for they all saw him, and were terri-
fied. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; have no
fear.” [51] And he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased. And they
were utterly astounded, [52] for they did not understand about the loaves, but
their hearts were hardened.

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Commentary:

48. The Romans divided the night into four parts or watches, whose length va-
ried depending on the season. St Mark (13:35) gives the popular names for
these watches: evening, midnight, cockcrow, morning. Therefore, it is towards
dawn that Jesus comes to the disciples.

He wishes to teach us that even when we are in very pressurized and difficult
situations, he is nearby, ready to help us; but he expects us to make an effort,
to strengthen our hope and temper our resolve (cf. note on Mt 14:24-33); as an
early Greek commentator puts it: “The Lord allowed his disciples to enter dan-
ger to make them suffer, and he did not immediately come to their aid: he left
them in peril for the whole night, to teach them to be patient and not to be ac-
customed to receiving immediate succor in tribulation” (Theophylact, “Enarratio
in Evangelium Marci, in loc.”).

52. The disciples do not yet see Jesus’ miracles as signs of his divinity. They
witness the multiplication of the loaves and the fish (Mk 6:33-44) and the se-
cond multiplication of the loaves (Mk 8: 17), but their hearts and minds are
still hardened; they fail to grasp the full import of what Jesus is teaching them
through his actions — that he is the Son of God. Jesus is patient and under-
standing with their defects, even when they fail to grasp what he says when he
speaks about his own passion (Lk 18:34). Our Lord will give them further mira-
cles and further teaching to enlighten their minds, and later, he will send the
Holy Spirit to teach them all things and remind them of everything he said (cf.
Jn 14:26).

St Bede the Venerable comments on this whole episode (Mk 6:45-52) in this
way: “In a mystical sense, the disciples’ efforts to row against the wind point
to the efforts the Holy Church must make against the waves of the enemy
world and the outpourings of evil spirits in order to reach the haven of its hea-
venly home. It is rightly said that the boat was out on the sea and He alone
on the land, because the Church has never been so intensely persecuted by
the Gentiles that it seemed as if the Redeemer had abandoned it completely.
But the Lord sees his disciples struggling, and to sustain them he looks at
them compassionately and sometimes frees them from peril by clearly co-
ming to their aid” (”In Marci Evangelium expositio”, in loc.).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.